


To Make Much of Time

by Chocolatequeen



Series: Being To Timelessness [2]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bad Wolf, Bad Wolf Rose Tyler, Episode Fix-It: s02e04 The Girl in the Fireplace, Epsiode Fix-it: s02e13 Doomsday, F/M, GITF rewrite, Romance, Series 2 UA, Telepathic Bond, Telepathy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-18
Updated: 2015-08-07
Packaged: 2018-02-26 04:51:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 41
Words: 167,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2638742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chocolatequeen/pseuds/Chocolatequeen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor thought he’d removed all traces of the Vortex from Rose, but there was still something of the Wolf about her. What would have changed if he’d been forced to face that–and if Rose had understood what she was becoming? </p><p>A series 2 canon divergence fic starting with Tooth and Claw and following the changes through Doomsday.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to Unabashed Bird, ascballerina, and rudennotgingr for the beta. Any mistakes are, of course, mine.

The monk pushed Rose and Flora onto the cellar floor and chained them to the wall. “A few more ladies to keep you company, Lady Isobel.”

Hay pricked Rose’s legs through her tights and her knees stung from the rough landing. “Oi, a bit more careful, if you don’t mind,” she protested, but he just smirked and slammed the door with a clang.

Rose squinted, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the dim light. As far as cells went, it wasn’t the poshest place she’d been held, but it could’ve been worse. It seemed dry at least, which was a slight comfort.

Of the four other people in the room, three were dressed in servants’ uniforms and one in a fine dark blue dress. _That’d be Lady Isobel then,_ Rose figured. The younger maid was most likely her ladyship’s lady’s maid, the older woman the missing cook, and then… 

A moan from the other end of the room interrupted her thoughts before she could place the man. Lady Isobel stiffened, and Rose followed her gaze to a cage resting beneath the open window. 

“Don’t make a sound,” the Lady Isobel whimpered. “They said if we scream or shout, then he will slaughter us.”

Rose glanced back and forth between the person in the cage and Lady Isobel. A heavy hood covered the face, but the form was clearly human. “But he’s in a cage. He’s a prisoner. He’s the same as us.”

Her ladyship’s features tightened. “He’s nothing like us. That creature is not mortal.” As if on cue, the hooded figure opened his eyes, and even Rose shifted back a bit; his eyes were pure black.

But Rose knew from experience that strange things weren’t always bad. She studied the creature for a minute, then she got to her feet and moved slowly toward the cage. Lady Isobel pleaded with her to stop, but instead, Rose took another step forward, stopping only when she’d reached the end of the chain. 

Ignoring the slight twinge of pain where the cuff dug into her wrist, she focused on the person in front of her. “Who are you?” she asked.

The flash of something alien in the creature’s eyes didn’t deter Rose, despite the warnings from behind her.  “Where are you from?” she asked, slowly crouching down until she was at eye level with him. “You’re not from Earth. What planet are you from?”

“Ah, intelligence!” he purred with satisfaction, holding himself unnaturally still.

His voice was unnerving, but Rose licked her lips and tried again. “Where were you born?”

Despite the fact that he was in a cage, the boy seemed to know he was in charge of the interview. “This body?” he asked disinterestedly. “Ten miles away. A weakling, heartsick boy, stolen away at night by the Brethren for my cultivation.” His voice deepened with menace. “I carved out his soul and sat in his heart.”

Flora and Lady Isobel moaned in fear. The feral pleasure in his voice sickened Rose, but she swallowed down the bile in her throat and forced out the next question. “All right, so the body’s human. But what about you, the thing inside?”

“So far from home,” he said, emphasising each word.

“If you want to get back home, we can help,” Rose said in a rush, her heart racing. _If he just wants to go home, maybe I can talk him out of whatever he’s got planned…_

He still didn’t move from his spot, a raised eyebrow his only physical reaction to Rose’s question. “Why would I leave this place? A world of industry, of workforce and warfare. I could turn it to such purpose.” 

Rose forgot about helping the creature when she heard the implicit threat in his words. Standing as tall as she could, she stared the creature down. “How would you do that?” she asked, trying to keep the breathless fear out of her voice.

“I would migrate to the Holy Monarch,” he said, with that air of satisfaction once again.

“You mean Queen Victoria?” Rose asked, trying to follow his logic. 

He bared his teeth. “With one bite, I would pass into her blood, and then it begins. The Empire of the Wolf.” The malice in his voice shook Rose, but she didn’t have a chance to respond. “You have many questions.”

Before she could form a reply, the creature lunged at the cage. Even as Rose jumped back, something inside her wanted to meet the wolf head on. His already unnatural eyes widened even farther. “Look. Inside your eyes. You’ve seen it too.”

“Seen what?”

“The Wolf. There is something of the Wolf about you.”

Bits of dreams suddenly flashed through Rose’s memory, dreams of herself standing in the doorway of the TARDIS, surrounded by a golden light. She saw Daleks and her first Doctor, and heard herself say, “I am the Bad Wolf…” 

“I don’t know what you mean,” she said half-truthfully.

“You burn like the sun, but all I require is the moon,” he growled.

 _You burn like the sun…_ The remembered dream was clearer now, and she could hear the terror and awe in her Doctor’s voice as he said, “You’re going to burn!” 

Moonlight poured into the room from the overhead window, and the creature turned his face toward it. Rose watched in horror as he turned from a human into a werewolf. Dreams and memories faded from her mind in the pressing need to escape.

***************

Twelve hours later, having defeated the werewolf and been knighted (and banished), Rose and the Doctor jumped off the back of a wagon and started up the hill toward the TARDIS.  “No, but the funny thing is, Queen Victoria did actually suffer a mutation of the blood,” he said, his arm brushing against hers as they walked. “It’s historical record. She was haemophiliac. They used to call it the Royal Disease. But it’s always been a mystery because she didn’t inherit it. Her mum didn’t have it, her dad didn’t have it. It came from nowhere.”

“What, and you’re saying that’s a wolf bite?” Rose asked skeptically, squinting up at him. 

A flash of gold filled Rose’s vision when she accidentally stared right into the sun. _You burn like the sun…_ She shook her head and the spots disappeared. 

“You all right, Rose?”

“Yeah, fine. Just got the sun in my eyes is all.” He raised an eyebrow, but she shook her head and pointed up the hill. “Race you to the TARDIS?”

The Doctor took off running before Rose had the sentence out of her mouth, and she looked back at the sun before chasing after him. _I am the Bad Wolf…_


	2. Chapter 2

The Doctor spun around the console as Rose closed the door behind her. “Took you long enough, slowpoke,” he teased. “I think that means I get to choose our next destination.”

When Rose didn’t come back with a quick retort, he glanced up at her and frowned; she was twisting her hair around her finger. He’d always been aware of Rose’s non-verbal tells; he’d become as fluent in them as he was in English. Twisting her hair around her finger? That was sign #52 that something was bothering her. 

He walked around to her side of the console and leaned against the railing. “Rose? Are you all right?”

She sighed and dropped the strand of hair. _(Sighing: Sign #34.)_ “Yeah… s’just, the werewolf… he said something to me, Doctor. Before he went all… all wolf-like.”

The Doctor’s stomach tightened. He’d tried to forget Rose had been locked in the same room with the monster. “Not technically a werewolf, a lupine wavelength haemovariform. A creature capable of taking two different forms. On his home planet, he could probably go between the two at will; I wonder what it is about Earth that bound him to his humanoid form until the full moon?" 

“Whatever.” _(Too distracted to call him on his rudeness: Sign #73.)_ Rose looked up at him, the light from the Time Rotor turning her hair green. “He looked me right in the eye and said, “You have something of the Wolf about you…” 

The Doctor froze for a split second, then darted back to the console, quickly pulling a few levers in a sequence that would do absolutely nothing but make him look busy. “Something of the wolf?” he repeated, purposely ignoring the capital W he had heard in Rose’s inflection. “I wonder what would make him say that.”

His fingers froze on the radio dial when he felt her sidle up behind him. “I’ve been having these dreams, Doctor. Or memories, I don’t know. It’s like—like an out of body experience or something.”

He faced her, a manic grin on his face. “Oh, you never want to have those, Rose. Trust me, make sure you stay totally inside your body at all times.”

“Doctor! Stop interrupting.”

(Eyes snapping with brown fire: Sign #97, and the one he admired but never, ever ignored. Lesson learnt the hard way: Tyler women can slap.)

He swallowed. “Right. Sorry.” Rose raised an eyebrow, and he held up his hands. “Scout’s honour. Not that I was ever a Scout, but… finish your story.”  

She crossed her arms in front of her chest. “And in these… dreams, I hear myself sayin’, ‘I am the Bad Wolf. I—’”

“I create myself,” he said, finishing the sentence he’d hoped never to hear again. 

She sucked in a deep breath. “So, not dreams then.”

“Not dreams.” He kept his voice light, but inside his chest, his two hearts pounded furiously. _If she remembers that much, what else does she remember?_

“Right.” Rose wrapped her arms around herself and paced a little in front of the jump seat.

Fear heightened the Doctor’s already acute senses; he could hear her increased heart rate and see the slight dilation of her eyes as she tried to process what he’d told her. “So, what exactly do you remember?” he asked, aiming for a casual tone.

Rose gnawed on her lip and continued to pace. The Doctor shifted his weight from one foot to the other, unable to settle into a comfortable stance while he waited for her to answer.

She narrowed her eyes at him. “You’re worried.”

The Doctor had to swallow a few times before he could reply. “Worried, me?” She snorted in disbelief. “Nah… a little concerned, maybe,” he amended. “After all, I thought I took the Vortex out of you. You didn’t remember anything that had happened when you woke up in the TARDIS.”

“Right before you regenerated you mean.” Her cheeks drained of all colour and she slapped a hand over her mouth. “Oh god, you regenerated because of me! I killed you!” She stepped forward and placed her hands over his hearts.

It took him a moment to follow the swift change in topic, and when he’d caught up, Rose was looking up at him with glassy eyes. He took in her appearance and processed what she’d said. _“I killed you…”_  

The obvious answer leapt to the Doctor’s tongue—that dying for her had been more than worth it, if it meant he could save her life. He stopped himself just in time, masking the emotion with a cheeky smile. “Ah, well. It seemed only fair, really. You were dying to save me, and of the two of us, I was the one who had the ability to regenerate. Better for me to die once than for you to die forever.” 

“Yeah?” She took a step back and clasped her hands in front of her.

“Promise.” He wagged a finger in front of her face. “But you’re changing the subject, Rose Tyler. You were going to tell me what you remember.”

Rose rolled her shoulders and squinted up at him. “Like I said, it doesn’t feel like a memory. It’s like I’m watching myself do things without remembering actually doing them.”

“Roooooose, you’re not cooperating!” 

“Well maybe if you told me what answer you’re looking for, I could be more specific,” she snapped.

He shoved his hands into his pockets and rocked back on his heels. “If I tell you, then you might remember what I don’t want you remembering and then where would we be, hmmm?”

Rose’s gaze turned toward the ceiling, her chest slowly expanding as she took a deep breath. “You can be a right git sometimes, you know that?” she said, glaring at him.

“Rude and not ginger, remember? But good manners won’t tell me if your mind is going to burn as memories I suppressed leak out!” 

He snapped his mouth shut, but judging by Rose’s wide eyes, it was too late. “Doctor, what aren’t you telling me?”

The Doctor closed his eyes and clenched his jaw. A moment later he felt her soft hand brush some hair out of his face, and he went completely still, taking a deep breath in an attempt to regain some equilibrium.

“Hey, calm down,” she said quietly, stroking from his temple down to his jaw. 

His eyes opened wide at the contact. “Rose…” 

Rose looked up at him through her lashes. “If I can’t tell you, maybe there’s another way.”

“I’m not sure—”

“You’re telepathic, yeah? So maybe… you could just look? See if everything is still okay?”

The Doctor’s heart leapt into his throat. It wasn’t that he didn’t like the idea. He’d been in Rose’s mind once before, when he’d taken the Vortex out of her, and he could still remember how clean and beautiful her mind had felt against his. But Rose had always seemed to guard herself fiercely against telepathic contact. “Rose… do you know what you’re asking?”

She tugged at a loose thread dangling from the hem of her dungarees. “I think so. But maybe… tell me?”

The TARDIS was humming, urging him to go into Rose’s mind, but he needed to know she understood first. “Telepathy is more than just reading thoughts, Rose. If I go in your mind, I can’t promise I won’t see… more.”

Her brow furrowed. “More like what?”

“More like… latent feelings. Stray memories. You’re not a trained telepath, you won’t have mental barriers to keep me out of places you don’t want me to be. I can explain the rudiments of it—”

“So explain, Doctor. Don’t treat me like an idiot.”

“You’re not an idiot Rose, but this…” Rose arched a brow. “Fine. Just…” He sought for a way to explain it to someone who’d never had any telepathic experience before. “Imagine your mind is a corridor. Any thoughts you don’t want me to see, close inside a room and lock the door. Leave the door to what you remember of Bad Wolf open.”

Rose tilted her head. “What if there’re other things I don’t care about you seeing?”

The Doctor swallowed hard. “Let’s focus on the issue at hand,” he suggested, trying valiantly to ignore the implications of her invitation, wondering if she realised the intimacy she’d offered so artlessly. “Figure out these memories first, hmmm?”

Rose closed her eyes and furrowed her brow. He waited a moment, his hand hovering beside her temple. “Ready?” he said when her expression cleared.

“Ready.”

He paused for one more moment. “Last chance to change your mind,” he said, his fingers brushing her hair. 

“Doctor! Just do it already.” The firmness of that command overcame his hesitation, and his fingertips made contact with the sensitive skin above her temple. 

Instantly, he was surrounded by the familiar, comfortable golden-pink light he remembered from the last time he’d been in her mind. A few stray thoughts floated around him, mostly childhood memories, but there was also a current of worry that glowed a brighter red-gold.

_You acted like you weren’t at all concerned,_ he told her, and he knew she could feel his own surprise.

_What did you expect?_ she asked _. You told me the memories could kill me—yeah, I’m afraid._

_Well let’s find out, shall we?_ He took her hand, and the streaks of red softened to a bright pink.

The corridor stretched out in front of him. Vague sensory details seeped out from behind the locked doors, like the smell of motor oil or the sound of raised voices, but he ignored it as best he could. 

There was a door flung wide open, and he paused for a minute, thinking this must be the Game Station. Instead, he saw himself with his daft old face grab Rose’s hand and whisper, “Run!” 

From that point on, none of the doors were closed. _Didn’t seem much point,_ Rose told him. _You lived the rest of it with me, yeah?_

In the console room, the Doctor’s fingers trembled on Rose’s temples. He’d never been more humbled by Rose’s trust in him, and not wanting to violate that by lingering too long, he pressed on quickly down the corridor until he heard the faint echo of himself telling her to have a fantastic life.

 Desperation spilled into the corridor, and he finally realised what sending her away had done to her. Rose tugged on his hand, but he lingered in the doorway. It wasn’t that he’d thought she’d be glad to get rid of him, but the emotion here… 

_Next room,_ _Doctor,_ she told him, pulling more firmly, and they moved on to the next door.

The entire memory was here, playing like a video on a loop. Looking into the TARDIS, flying it back to the Game Station. Opening the door and flooding the room with the golden glow of the Vortex. Killing the Daleks. 

He noted with some relief that the memory played like a video shot by a third person, so she didn’t remember what had happened to Jack. Aside from the fact that he didn’t want her feeling guilty over what had been so very, very human, he really didn’t want to explain why he’d left their friend behind on the Game Station.

And though she watched herself absorb the Vortex and fly the TARDIS, the details of both experiences seemed to be hazy, almost erased. The memories were there, but they were damaged enough that they would never come into focus.

The Doctor watched his Ninth self finally give into months of repressed desire and kiss Rose Tyler. To his surprise, her memory ended there, rather abruptly. He knew she had been unconscious when he’d picked her up and carried her into the TARDIS, but losing consciousness usually resulted in memories that faded out of focus, not an abrupt end.

_Something the matter, Doctor?_

_I’m not sure, Rose, I just…_ The whole thing felt off to him somehow. He left the room with her memories of the Game Station and looked up and down the corridor. Farther down, gold light shone around the door he had created and sealed himself, and an idea came to him. 

_All right Rose, I’m going to break our telepathic contact in a minute,_ he told her, not wanting her to be surprised when he suddenly left her mind. He felt her consent, and a moment later, they were back in the console room.

Rose swayed a little on her feet, disoriented by the sudden empty feeling in her mind. Once she caught her balance, she looked for the Doctor and spotted him leaning against the console with his hands shoved into his hair. 

Fear spiked through her. “All right, spit it out. Am I going to die? No,” she answered her own question, “you’d be more upset if that was it. So what’s wrong?”

“I don’t know! There’s a way I could find out, but…” He looked her in the eye. “Rose, do you trust me?”

“Yes.” 

He cleared his throat. “Right. Good. There’s nothing dangerous in your conscious memory. Like you said, it’s more like a film reel, showing you scenes from the Game Station. What concerns me is how abruptly it ends—like the film is just flapping off the end of the reel as it spins round and round.” 

“How is that bad? Isn’t it a good thing that the memory ends?”

“I don’t know, Rose! And the only way to find out is to look inside the room where I locked away everything that happened to you when you were Bad Wolf.” 

Rose blinked. “I thought I already remembered that.”

“You know what happened,” he corrected. “Like… Oh, I know. Like when your mum has told you about something you did as a kid so many times that it’s like you remember it, but what you’re really remembering is her telling you the story.” 

Rose nodded; that explained why the dream felt like it was happening to someone else. “And the actual memories are locked away?”

“Should be.” 

“Memories of seeing all that is, all that was, all that ever could be?” she asked, quoting herself.

“Yep.” 

“Not something a human mind should see,” she pointed out.

The Doctor looked away. “Which is why I want you to be asleep before I open the door,” he said, bracing for an argument.

“All right then.” 

“What? Just like that, you’re fine with the idea?”

Rose shrugged. “Privacy seems like a silly concern compared to the possibility of my brain melting, Doctor.” He swallowed hard, and she regretted her blunt phrasing. 

“That’s… that’s a very good point.” The Doctor raised his hands to her temples, but she took a quick step back. “What’s wrong? I thought—”

She rolled her eyes and grabbed his hand, leading him out of the console room. “We’re going to the library, and I’m going to lie down on the sofa. I don’t care to sleep on the grating, thanks.” 

“Ah, right.” The Doctor could feel his palms sweating as he followed Rose out of the console room. With every time he connected his mind to Rose’s, it became harder not to press for more. But he wouldn’t leave Rose in danger just to make himself more comfortable. 

Rose reclined on the couch and he knelt next to her, his hands by her temples once more. “Ready?” he asked. When she nodded, he entered her mind and slowly eased her to sleep, pushing just right so her brain waves lengthened into delta waves.

The tone of Rose’s telepathic presence changed, and he knew she was in a deep enough state of sleep to not be aware of anything he did. Drawing a deep breath, he walked quickly down the hall of her memories until he was outside the Bad Wolf room. With a trembling hand, he turned the knob and pushed the door open.

Golden light flooded the corridor, and when it faded, he saw a large wolf pacing the floor in front of a fireplace. _You’ve waited long enough to come see me, Time Lord._

The Doctor shoved his hands his pockets. _I didn’t know there was anything to see; I thought I’d taken care of this on the Game Station._

_Then let me show you what Rose cannot remember._

Once again, he saw himself kiss Rose. Then, as he laid her down on the floor, he noticed something he had failed to catch the first time around.

Rose wasn’t breathing.

The Doctor’s hearts stopped, and he stumbled over to an arm chair and sat down. 

_I am curious, Time Lord. You were the one who lowered her body to the floor. How did you fail to notice that she had died?_

_I was dying myself,_ he defended hotly.

_And it didn’t occur to you that if the Vortex had killed you after only a minute, it must have killed a mere human? Rose Tyler held the Vortex within her for at least ten times the length of time you did._

The obviousness of it sank in. Of course the Vortex killed Rose. How could he have missed it? He groaned and tipped his head back, staring up at the blue ceiling.

_Who are you?_

_I am the Bad Wolf. I create myself, and I cannot be uncreated._

The Doctor’s fingers clenched into the arms of the chair. _But Rose can’t hold the Vortex again. It killed her once._

_And I brought her back._

The truth slammed into the Doctor. The only power that could pull a creature back from death was Time. Even a Time Lord’s regenerations derived from a biological connection to Time.

As Bad Wolf, Rose had held all of Time inside her, and Time had saved Rose.

_But why?_

The wolf flicked its tail, the hair on its back standing up. _Are you not grateful, Time Lord?_ it growled.

The Doctor held his hands up. _Grateful that you saved her, of course. But confused as to why… why you allowed Rose to come for me in the first place._

_I wanted you safe, my Doctor._

Even though he’d never talked to the TARDIS with actual words, he recognised her voice speaking through the Wolf. The familiarity gave him permission to vent his anger. _And I wanted Rose safe. You brought her back to me, and that nearly killed her._

The Doctor’s quicksilver mind leapt to a new conclusion. _How long had you been planning this?_ He asked. _Is that why you made sure Rose saw your heart open in Cardiff, so she would know to do it herself?_

The affirmative was clear, and he jumped to his feet and started pacing. _You risked her life—you stole her right to choose._

_No. The moment we met Rose, I knew what her choice would be. I simply gave her the ability to take it. When you sent her away, my Doctor, do you know how long it took before she started looking for a way back, a way to save you?_

He hadn’t expected that question. _How long?_

_Two hours. I waited, and I watched. If she had been willing to walk away from you, I would not have shown her the way back to you. But she refused to give up on you, so I took the words and scattered them as a sign to lead her back to you. She was always going to choose saving you._

The Doctor tamped down his resentment long enough to focus on the reason he was here. _And Rose is safe now? The Vortex is gone—the memories she has won’t hurt her?_

_Rose is safe,_ the Wolf confirmed. _Anything that could have harmed her is gone. And now I think it is time you let her wake up and told her what you have learned._

The Doctor removed his hands from Rose’s temples and stretched his legs out of their cramped position. He turned over what the Wolf had told him, trying to decide how much to tell Rose. 

Despite the circumstances, going into Rose’s mind had eased the emptiness of his own, and he couldn’t bring himself to regret that. After living over 900 years in constant awareness of every Time Lord, being alone had left a hole in his mind that she filled with ease.

He shook Rose by the shoulder, watching as she blinked back to wakefulness. Something else caught his attention though—a muted pink and gold hovering almost unnoticed along the edge of his consciousness that slowly brightened as Rose woke up.


	3. Chapter 3

Rose burrowed into the couch, resisting the tug of consciousness. In her dreams, she’d heard the most beautiful song, and she didn’t want it to end. She blinked once, then realised the song was still there, humming quietly in the back of her mind. Giving up on sleep, she yawned and opened her eyes. 

“Where’s the music coming from?” she asked, rolling over to look at the Doctor.

The Doctor sat with his back against the sofa and his knees bent in front of him. His head was bowed, resting on his hands. “Doctor? What’s wrong?” She turned her thoughts inward and looked for the part of her mind that must be melting, but there was nothing—nothing but the song.

Rose thwacked him lightly on the back of his head. “What’d you have to go scarin’ me for?” she muttered. 

“What? Oh, you thought… No, your mind is fine.” He rubbed at his face and jumped to his feet. “Well, where should we go now, Rose? We’ve done werewolves, what about selkies? Seal-like creatures that take the form of a human man and can seduce any female.” He wrinkled his nose. “On second thought, no selkies.” 

“Doctor.” Rose stood up and moved in front of him, so she could see his face for the first time since she’d woken up. He only met her gaze for a heartbeat before his eyes started flicking around the room. “What did you find?”

“Oh, nothing you need to worry about. Now, I was thinking…” 

Rose pressed her hand to his chest and gently pushed, not stopping until the back of his legs hit the couch. “Sit down,” she ordered. “Now look at me.” She waited until his eyes finally met hers. “Tell me what happened.” 

He dropped his head to the back of the couch. “Any chance you’ll let this go?”

“Not bloody likely. It’s my mind, Doctor.” She bit her lip. “Let’s start at the beginning, yeah? How did that creature know about Bad Wolf?”

The Doctor reached up to his neck, then realised he wasn’t wearing a tie and let his hand fall back to the couch. “He was probably slightly telepathic.” 

“Okay, so now tell me—” Rose paused; he’d never answered her first question. “Doctor, where’s the music coming from?”

He ruffled his hair until it was a wild mess. “Bloody interfering ship,” he muttered.

Rose blinked. “What’s the TARDIS got to do with this?”

He snorted. “Everything. She knew what you’d do to save me, and she knew what it would do to you, and she still let it happen.”  

“Stop talking in riddles, Doctor. Give me one straight answer—just one. What’s the music?”

“The TARDIS.” 

Rose remembered the song now; she’d heard it all around her when she’d opened the heart of the TARDIS. “Okay, so why am I hearing it?”

“Wellllll…” His knee bounced in an erratic rhythm. “Before I tell you, promise me you’ll remember this was all her doing. I had nothing to do with it. In fact, if I had my way…”

The song in Rose’s head—the voice of the TARDIS, she corrected—shifted from a pleasant hum to something like an exasperated sigh. “Just tell me, Doctor.” 

His Adam’s apple bobbed. “See, you and the TARDIS worked together to save my life. You and her, together, were Bad Wolf. And the TARDIS is a sentient, telepathic being.” 

“I know all that already, Doctor.” 

“Right. Well, true telepathy isn’t something most humans have the capacity for. Your frontal lobe isn’t developed enough to handle the mental load.” 

“But she translates for me. Isn’t that telepathy?”

He shook his head. “The translation matrix is one way communication, with the TARDIS essentially putting words into your head. And when I was in your mind earlier, I initiated and directed the exchange. You weren’t able to get back into my head.” 

“Go on then.” 

“But the TARDIS, she only communicates telepathically. So when you were Bad Wolf, together, she—or maybe the two of you, using the Vortex—strengthened those neural pathways. That’s how she could tell you how to fly her.” 

Rose connected the dots. “The hum is the TARDIS.” 

“Yep.” 

“I can hear a ship that only communicates telepathically.” 

“Yep.” 

“Doctor, am I telepathic?”

“You are now, thanks to my interfering ship.” 

“But Bad Wolf—I mean the Game Station—that was weeks ago. Why now?” Rose felt the hum shift slightly, as if it were trying to tell her something. A hazy image of her dream came to her. “There was a golden light before the song.” 

The Doctor groaned and rubbed his hands over his face. “The light from the Bad Wolf room.” 

His fingers tapped a quick beat on the cushion, and Rose grabbed his hand. “That room was where you locked away all the Bad Wolf changes, yeah?”

“Right. And I thought… I should have… you were asleep. I should have been able to open that door without you remembering anything. I thought it was safe, or I never would have…” He ground the heels of his hands into his eyes. “I am so, so sorry,” he muttered. “So sorry.” 

“What for?”

His left eyebrow shot up to his hairline. “Rose, you were angry when you found out the TARDIS was in your head. Now I’ve told you you’re telepathic, and you want to know why I’m apologising?”

“Don’t remind me, please,” Rose groaned. “I barely knew you, and you told me your ship had been messing around in my head _._ ” 

Rose paused. In addition to the song, there was something else in her mind, something that felt like… like comfort and home. “I can feel you,” she said. “You’re in my head.” 

“I promise I’m not looking at any thoughts,” he said on a rush. “I mean, I can get the general drift of what you’re feeling, but to really know what you’re thinking, I’d have to be touching you,” he said, wiggling his fingers at her.

“I wasn’t worried about that. I trust you.” 

Rose’s mobile interrupted whatever the Doctor might have said. She fumbled in the pocket of her dungarees and pulled it out, glancing at the display as she hit send. “Hi Mickey.” The Doctor pulled his hand away and crossed his arms over his chest. 

“Hey babe, I’ve found something I think you and the Doctor might be interested in.”

“Yeah? What is it?” Rose looked at the Doctor. “Here, let me put you on speaker.”

“Well if it isn’t Ricky the Idiot,” the Doctor grumbled.

“I don’ like talking to you either, Doctor,” Mickey retorted.

“Right you two,” Rose cut in. “Mickey, you said you’d found something we’d be interested in.”

The Doctor snorted.

“I heard that,” Mickey said, “but to prove I’m the better man, I’m going to ignore it and tell you what I’ve discovered. About three months ago, there was all this UFO activity, see?” His words sped up until they were nearly running together. “And right around the same time, one of the local schools suddenly started scoring off the charts in the tests.” 

Rose grinned when the Doctor leaned forward a little. He’d probably never admit as much to Mickey, but she knew his attention was caught. “What’s the date, Mickey?” she asked as she and the Doctor walked back to the console room.

The Doctor set the coordinates as Mickey rattled off the date. “See you in five minutes, Mickey!” he said.

After cutting the connection, Rose looked up at the Doctor. He was only on the other side of the console, but it suddenly felt like he was a whole world away. There were dozens of questions she still wanted to ask: what kind of telepathic abilities would she have, what did this mean for them, what else had he learned when he’d been in her mind? But judging from the manic grin he shot her, he was content to pretend the entire encounter had never happened.

“I’m just gonna go…” she pointed toward her room and then down at her clothes. “This might not be ‘naked’ in London like it was in 19th century Scotland, but I don’t think it’s appropriate for a school investigation, yeah? I’ll be right back.”

She had one foot in the corridor when a new thought struck her. “Can you feel me?” she asked.

His eyes flicked up to hers and then back to the display. “Oh yes,” he breathed.

She remembered the pain on his face when he’d told her he’d feel Time Lords in his head, if there were any left. “You’re not alone in there anymore, yeah?”

A flutter of happiness spread through her mind, and she sucked in a breath. “You felt that?” he asked, and she nodded. “I’m not alone anymore.” 

“That’s good, yeah?”

Something shifted in his expression, and the happiness she’d sensed a moment ago disappeared. “Hurry up and get changed, Rose,” he said, still grinning. “Time and aliens wait for no man.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again go to Unabashed Bird, ascballerina, and rudennotgingr for the beta.
> 
> I also need to thank chakoteya.net for transcribing every episode of Doctor Who. It was tremendously helpful to be able to dump the dialogue straight into my file and then work from there, or to have a place to double-check if I wasn’t sure of a word.

Chapter 4

The Doctor grinned cheekily at Rose as he passed through the lunch line. This was what he liked best, him and Rose, out investigating curious and unexplainable happenings, although judging by her glare, she didn’t much care for her part in their cover. He winked as she dumped some unidentifiable side dish on his tray, and then found a table, confident she’d follow as soon as she could.

Sure enough, a moment later, she sat down beside him, a dish cloth in hand. “Two days,” she muttered as she wiped ineffectually at the table.

Feeling puckish, he gestured at the table with his fork. “Sorry, could you just… there’s a bit of gravy.” She swiped at the table, missing the brown blob entirely. “No, no, just there.”

Rose huffed out a breath. “Two days we’ve been here.”

The Doctor shrugged. “Blame your boyfriend. He’s the one who put us onto this. And he was right. Boy in class this morning, got a knowledge way beyond planet Earth.”

“You eating those chips?” Rose asked, snagging one before he could answer.

He swallowed hard. The look on Rose’s face as she bit into the chip made it hard for him to concentrate on anything else. “Yeah… they’re a bit different,” he said, leaning back and crossing his arms over his chest.

“I think they’re gorgeous. Wish I had school dinners like this,” she said on a happy sigh.

_Right! Time to change the topic from the Chips of Doom._

“It’s very well behaved, this place.” She hummed her agreement, and the sound did nothing to help his concentration.

He rocked his chair onto the back two legs, looking around the canteen. “I expected happy slapping hoodies. Happy slapping hoodies with ASBOs. Happy slapping hoodies with ASBOs and ringtones. Huh? Huh?” He grinned at her. “Oh, yeah. Don’t tell me I don’t fit in.”

She giggled and ate another chip, but then a shadow fell over their happy conversation—literally. The Doctor turned around and saw the head dinner lady looming over their table. “You are not permitted to leave your station during a sitting,” she told Rose.

Rose’s chair scraped across the floor. “I was just talkin’ to this teacher.”

“Hello!” the Doctor said, wiggling his fingers in greeting, but the woman didn’t break. In fact, she also didn’t blink. _That’s interesting…_

“He doesn’t like the chips,” Rose whispered.

If anything, the woman’s expression hardened at that revelation. “The menu has been specifically designed by the headmaster to improve concentration and performance. Now, get back to work.”

The Doctor smirked as he watched Rose walk away. “See, this is me,” she muttered, twirling around and gesturing at her apron. “Dinner lady.”

“I’ll have the crumble,” he called out, chuckling when he heard her threaten to kill him.

A moment later he choked on his laughter when he felt a wave of indignation roll off her. Even though Rose’s presence in his mind filled the void left by the Time Lords, he’d tried to ignore her telepathy—he didn’t deserve it, not if she’d had to die for it to happen. But it was going to be hard to ignore if he kept getting little glimpses into what she was thinking or feeling. _Guess I’ll have to teach her not to project._

Lunch and chips forgotten, he ambled down to the staff room and found a teacher who wasn’t on his suspect list to pry information out of. The conversation with Parsons was just getting interesting when Finch cleared his throat behind them.

“Excuse me, colleagues.” The Doctor turned around and his jaw dropped; he would recognise the woman with Finch anywhere, any when. “A moment of your time. May I introduce Miss Sarah Jane Smith. Miss Smith is a journalist who’s writing a profile about me for the Sunday Times. I thought it might be useful for her to get a view from the trenches, so to speak. Don’t spare my blushes.”

Finch left the room, but the Doctor’s attention was focused entirely on Sarah Jane, now approaching him directly. “Hello,” she said.

The Doctor rocked back on his heels, feeling a soppy grin on his face.  “Oh, I should think so,” he said, unable to keep his amusement out of his voice. 

She looked him up and down, and he recognised the quick cataloging of his appearance. “And, you are?”

“Hm?” _Oh right, new face!_ For a split second, he considered telling her right then and there, but there were too many people within earshot. “Er, Smith. John Smith.”

She smiled wistfully. “John Smith. I used to have a friend who sometimes went by that name.”

_And how exactly do you respond when you’re being compared to yourself?_ “Well, it’s a very common name,” he said, after floundering a moment.

“He was a very uncommon man,” she replied, her voice rich with nostalgia. “Nice to meet you,” she added, coming back to the present and offering him a hand to shake.

He took it enthusiastically. “Nice to meet you. Yes, very nice. More than nice. Brilliant.”

She cocked her head and looked at him, and he realised with a start that her earlier quick assessment had given way to a keen investigative stare. “Ah, so, have you worked here long?”

“No.” He looked around the staff room, trying to appear as if he belonged. “It’s only my second day.”

Her demeanour softened and he knew what she was thinking. If he’d only been here a few days, then he couldn’t be part of whatever was going on. “Oh, you’re new, then. So, what do you think of the school?” she asked, stepping closer to lessen the chances of them being overheard. “I mean, this new curriculum? So many children getting ill. Doesn’t that strike you as odd?”

The Doctor’s respiratory bypass kicked in, and he realised he hadn’t taken a breath since he’d seen Sarah Jane. “You don’t sound like someone just doing a profile,” he said conspiratorially, after sucking in a quick breath.

She smiled, but some of the openness disappeared from her expression. “Well, no harm in a little investigation while I’m here.”

“No. Good for you.” He watched her turn her journalistic instincts on another teacher, and his face split into a wide grin. “Good for you. Oh, good for you, Sarah Jane Smith.”

**************

By the time the Doctor had finished his afternoon classes, Sarah Jane was gone. _Not for long though, I bet_ , he thought with a grin as he went to meet Rose by the stairwell. They snuck back to the TARDIS to wait while the school emptied of teachers and staff. 

Rose sat down on the jump seat and he fiddled with the TARDIS, taking the chance to wipe the console down. “So, you seemed happy earlier this afternoon,” she commented after a few minutes of silence.

The Doctor would have brushed it off if she hadn’t been idly picking at her nails as she mentioned it. That was Sign #15 under the Take Rose Seriously category.

Still, he wasn’t exactly sure what she meant. “Happy? When? If you’re talking about the crumble—” She fixed him with a look. “Right. Forget the crumble. But I still don’t know what you’re talking about Rose, honestly.”

“After you left the canteen,” she ventured. “I just got… you were suddenly really, really happy.”

The Doctor sucked in a deep breath. _Why didn’t it occur to me that if she was projecting that strongly, she might be able to receive strong emotions too?_ The simple truth was it had been so long since he’d been around other telepaths, he’d become lax in maintaining his own barriers.

“Guess I need to work harder to keep things to myself,” he muttered.

She looked down at the floor, her lips pressed together. “It wasn’t… is it rude of me to be asking about this?” she mumbled. “Should I pretend I didn’t notice?”

He ran a hand through his hair. “No, Rose. It’s rude to go prying, but this was my fault for letting that slip through.” He grinned a little. “Besides, this isn’t anything too personal to share.”

“So what was it?” she asked.

“I ran into an old friend, one I haven’t seen in a very, very long time.”

“Didn’t know you had old friends.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Did you think I’d just traveled alone for a thousand years?”

“A thousand? Last time it was 900.”

“Not the point,” he said, sidestepping the question of his age.

She bit her lip. “Never really thought about it I guess.”

“I have a feeling we’ll run into her tonight. She’s investigating the school too, and if I know Sarah Jane, she won’t be content to do so when it’s open.”

He grabbed his coat from where he’d tossed it earlier. “Speaking of, we should be safe to head back out there. Mickey’s probably waiting for us to let him in. Don’t want anyone catching sight of him.” He held open the TARDIS door and they walked quickly down the stairs to the main floor of the school. “Your boyfriend isn’t exactly the most stealthy of individuals.”

“He’s not my boyfriend, Doctor,” she told him just before they reached the doors.

“No?” he asked, carefully keeping his grin in check. When she hadn’t corrected him earlier, he’d wondered if their on-again off-again relationship had switched back to on. Mickey appeared before she could answer, so she simply shook her head.

The Doctor bounced lightly on his toes and let Mickey into the school. “Follow me,” he said and led them back to the main stairway.

The silent halls creeped Rose out a little bit. “Oh, it’s weird seeing school at night. Just sort of… wrong.” She ducked around a pillar, coming out into the opening by the main stairwell. “When I was a kid, I used to think all the teachers slept in school.”

The Doctor moved into the moonlight. “Hiya, team.” He paused. “Oh, I hate people who say team. Ah, gang. Um, comrades.”

Rose stifled a giggle, and from the sidelong glance the Doctor shot her, he’d picked up on her amusement. _Thought he was going to put up barriers,_ she wondered while she attempted to fasten her watch.

He kept talking, and she brushed the question aside for now. “Uh, anyway. Rose, go to the kitchen. Get a sample of that oil. Mickey, the new staff are all maths teachers. Go and check out the maths department. I’m going to look in Finch’s office. Be back here in ten minutes,” he ordered as he darted up the stairs

“You going to be all right?” Rose asked Mickey. The clasp on her watch finally worked, and she looked over at him.

“Me? Please,” he said, rocking back on his heels. “Infiltration and investigation? I’m an expert at this.”

Rose watched him walk down the hall in the wrong direction, waiting for him to admit he needed her help. Not even a minute later, he was back. “Where’s the Maths department?”

Biting the inside of her lip to keep from laughing, she leaned closer and pointed where he needed to go. “Down there, turn left, through the fire doors, on the right,” she said, keeping her voice down in case anyone else happened to still be in the building.

“Thank you,” Mickey said, and they parted ways.

Alone again, Rose’s mind drifted as she followed the familiar path to the kitchen. _Why hasn’t the Doctor put up those barriers? He wasn’t too fussed that I’d picked up on his feelings earlier, but I bet that won’t last long._

She pushed open the kitchen doors, blinking a little in the light, and crossed to the barrels. Her mind continued to work as she filled the vial the Doctor had given her with the oil. Something about hearing him talking about old friends had unsettled her—not because he shouldn’t have old friends, that made sense once he’d pointed out his age.

But… Rose bit her lip. _But he’s got friends, and he never talks about them. Does he ever visit them, or does he just leave them behind?_ The possibility of being abandoned left a hollow feeling in the bit of her stomach. He’d already tried to send her back once; what if he did it again?

Mickey’s scream interrupted her thoughts, and for a while, her misgivings were shoved to the side.

****************

The Doctor smirked when he overheard Rose telling Mickey which way to go. At the top of the steps, a sound distracted him from his destination: fluttering, and the sound of footsteps coming faster toward him. Instead of going to Finch’s office, he did an about-face and followed the sound in the direction of the storeroom where he’d hidden the TARDIS.

The Doctor watched from the shadows as Sarah Jane entered the same room a moment later, her hand on her chest. This wasn’t how he’d planned to tell her who he was—he hadn’t even fully decided if he should. But he knew that once she saw that beautiful blue box she’d know, because that couldn’t belong to anyone else.

A moment later, she backed out of the room, nearly stumbling over her feet before she slowly turned toward him. “Hello, Sarah Jane.”

She gave a little sound that was half laugh, half sob. “It’s you. Oh, Doctor. Oh, my God, it’s you, isn’t it?” She reached out a hand and then dropped it. “You’ve regenerated.”

“Yeah, oh…” He counted to himself. “Half a dozen times since we last met.”

The shock and wonder he’d felt when seeing her that afternoon were painted on her face. “You look incredible.”

“So do you,” he said, meaning every word. She looked confident, like she’d made herself a place in the world and knew exactly who she was supposed to be.

But she shook her head. “I got old.”

He was grateful the dimly lit hallway hid the shiver that ran through him. The frailty of human life astounded and terrified him. He always tried to leave his friends before he could see them die, but sometimes… He pictured Rose on the floor of the Game Station, and fear twisted in his stomach.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

He blinked and brought himself back to the conversation with an effort. “Well, UFO sighting, school gets record results. I couldn’t resist. What about you?”

She laughed incredulously. “The same.”

She stared at him for a long moment, and then the words just poured out of her, repressed tears putting a tremor in her voice. “I thought you’d died. I waited for you and you didn’t come back, and I thought you must have died.”

_But you know Time Lords don’t age, we don’t die…_ Loneliness swept over him, and it made his voice curt. “I lived. Everyone else died.”

The stark truth seemed to shake her out of her daze. “What do you mean?”

He took a deep breath. “Everyone died, Sarah.” _Everyone always dies and leaves me alone._

She closed her eyes, and he could tell the enormity of what he said was too much for her to take in. “I can’t believe it’s you.” Before he could respond to that, Mickey screamed and Sarah Jane grinned. “Okay, now I can!”

They raced down the hallway together, meeting Rose halfway. “Did you hear that?” She glanced at Sarah Jane. “You must be Sarah Jane; I’m Rose.”

Sarah Jane smiled suddenly. “At least you didn’t forget me entirely,” she said.

Timelines shifted just slightly, and the Doctor knew he’d avoided an unpleasant confrontation. He smiled brilliantly at both women. “Right. Let’s go see what made Mickey scream, shall we?” he suggested, and they dashed down the stairs together, Rose’s hand in his and Sarah Jane right behind them.

They found Mickey bent over, trying to pick up packages that had spilled into the hallway. “Sorry!” he said breathlessly, gathering a few up. “Sorry, it was only me. You told me to investigate, so I started looking through some of these cupboards and all these fell on me.”

The Doctor bent over to pick one up, realising what they were at the same time as Rose. “Oh, my God, they’re rats,” she said. “Dozens of rats. Vacuum packed rats.”

A rat in hand, the Doctor stared up at Mickey. “And you decided to scream.”

“It took me by surprise!”

“Like a little girl?” he scoffed.

“It was dark! I was covered in rats!”

The Doctor rolled his eyes as Mickey shuddered and ran a hand over his head. “Nine, maybe ten years old,” he said. “I’m seeing pigtails, frilly skirt.”

“Hello, can we focus?” Rose said. “Does anyone notice anything strange about this? Rats in school?”

“Well, obviously they use them in Biology lessons. They dissect them.”

Rose shook her head. “No one dissects rats anymore. There’s got to be something else going on.”

The Doctor nodded. “Everything started when Mr. Finch arrived. We should go and check his office.”

He led the way the headmaster’s office and opened the door with the sonic screwdriver. “Maybe those rats were food.”

“Food for what?” Rose asked.

The lock popped open and the Doctor opened the door slowly and stuck his head inside. At first glance, the room seemed exactly as it should be, but then he heard something like snoring and looked up. Thirteen bat creatures were hanging from the ceiling.

“Rose, you know you used to think all the teachers slept in the school? Well, they do.”

He stepped into the room and let Rose, Sarah Jane, and Mickey peek through the doorway. Mickey ran first with a muttered, “No way!” By the time the others reached the outdoors, he was bent over, gasping for breath. “I am not going back in there. No way.”

“Those were teachers,” Rose said in disbelief.

The Doctor nodded. “When Finch arrived, he brought with him seven new teachers, four dinner ladies and a nurse. Thirteen. Thirteen big bat people.” He spun on his heel, headed back toward the school. “Come on.”

“Come on?” Mickey snorted. “You’ve got to be kidding!”

The Doctor turned around. “I need the TARDIS,” he told him impatiently. “I’ve got to analyse that oil from the kitchen.”

“I might be able to help you there,” Sarah Jane told him. “I’ve got something to show you.”

 


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which the Doctor and Rose talk about withering and dying, and the conversation is complicated by telepathy.

An hour later, they were all seated together in a cafe, Mickey and Rose chatting while the Doctor fixed K9. “I thought of you on Christmas Day,” Sarah Jane told him. “This Christmas just gone? Great big spaceship overhead. I thought, oh yeah, bet he’s up there.”

The Doctor nodded. “Right on top of it, yeah.”

“And Rose?” she asked hesitantly.

The Doctor shot a sidelong glance at her. “She was there too.”

Sarah Jane shifted in her seat. “Did I do something wrong, because you never came back for me. You just dumped me.”

The question surprised him. “I told you. I was called back home and in those days humans weren’t allowed.”

“I waited for you. I missed you.”

“Oh, you didn’t need me.  You were getting on with your life.”

“You were my life.” 

The Doctor’s mouth dropped open a little. He’d never imagined his companions might resent returning to their old lives. So many had wanted to leave him; he’d always imagined they all did.

She glanced down, her features drawn tight. “You know what the most difficult thing was? Coping with what happens next, or with what doesn’t happen next. You took me to the furthest reaches of the galaxy, you showed me supernovas, intergalactic battles, and then you just dropped me back on Earth. How could anything compare to that?”

The hands that had still been working on K-9’s wiring stilled. “All those things you saw, you want—do you want me to apologise for that?”

“No, but we get a taste of that splendour and then we have to go back.”

“But look at you, you’re investigating,” he told her, trying to coax a smile from her. “You found that school. You’re doing what we always did.”

“You could have come back,” she insisted.

His smile slipped from his face. “I couldn’t.”

“Why not?”

That simple question stripped all of his defences. He had abandoned Sarah, and they both knew it. He’d taken advantage of a situation to leave her behind, not wanting to face losing her one day. And now, in her bereft expression, he saw exactly what his abandonment did to his friends.

He pushed his guilt aside and focused his attention again on repairing K9. Even if Sarah Jane hadn’t wanted to return to Earth, it had been the best choice for her.

“It wasn’t Croydon,” she told him a moment later. “Where you dropped me off, that wasn’t Croydon.”

He blinked. “Where was it?”

“Aberdeen.”

“Right. That’s next to Croydon, isn’t it?” Relatively speaking at least—he’d managed to get her in the right country at the right time.

She let out a half laugh and shook her head, but K9 flashed to life before she could reply. “Oh, hey! Now we’re in business!” the Doctor crowed, jumping to his feet.

“Master?” K9 said, wagging his tail.

“He recognises me,” the Doctor said, surprised at how happy that made him.

“Affirmative,” the metal dog said.

The Doctor held out a hand. “Rose, give me the oil.”

Rose and Mickey left their cozy booth and chips and she handed him the vial. “I wouldn’t touch it, though,” she warned him as he unscrewed the lid. “That dinner lady got all scorched.”

The Doctor scoffed at the warning. “I’m no dinner lady. And I don’—t often say that.” He smeared some on K9’s probe. “Here we go. Come on boy, here we go.”

The little dog’s lights glowed. “Oil. Ex ex ex extract. Ana ana analysing.”

Mickey chortled. “Listen to him, man. That’s a voice.”

“Careful, that’s my dog,” Sarah Jane protested, and the Doctor felt another spike of guilt, this time that he’d left her alone with no one but a metal dog who could truly understand her.

“Confirmation of analysis. Substance is Krillitane Oil.”

The Doctor sucked in a breath. “They’re Krillitanes.”

Rose bit her lip. “That’s bad,” she stated, and he wondered if she’d picked up on his unease.  “How bad is that, exactly?” she asked.

“Very. Think of how bad things could possibly be, and add another suitcase full of bad.”

“And what are Krillitanes?” Sarah Jane asked.

He shoved the bad into one corner of his mind and went into lecture mode. “They’re a composite race. Just like your culture is a mixture of traditions from all sorts of countries, people you’ve invaded or have been invaded by.” The rest of his explanation tumbled out of his mouth at a faster pace. “You’ve got bits of Viking, bits of France, bits of whatever. The Krillitanes are the same. An amalgam of the races they’ve conquered.”

From the look on his companions’ faces, he could tell they didn’t see yet why this was so bad. “But they take physical aspects as well. They cherry pick the best bits from the people they destroy. That’s why I didn’t recognise them. The last time I saw Krillitanes, they looked just like us except they had really long necks.”

“What’re they doing here?” Rose asked.

_Krillitane oil. Oil, oil to fry chips. Chips that are part of the specially planned meals that all the students eat._ “It’s the children. They’re doing something to the children.”

“So what are doing standing around here then?” she said, and behind her, Sarah Jane nodded in agreement. “Let’s go back to the school and take care of it—if they’re doing something to the kids, we have to stop them.”

“We will, but not tonight. They know we were there tonight. There’s no way we could get into the building tonight, but tomorrow, when school is in session…”

“We can go in through the front doors,” Sarah Jane said.

“Hold on.” Rose laid a hand on his arm. “The TARDIS is in the school.”

The Doctor shrugged. “Assembled hordes of Genghis Khan, remember? It’s locked up tight; there’s no way they can get in.”

He rubbed at the back of his neck. “However, that does leave me without anywhere to go tonight. Think your mum would mind if I kipped on her sofa, maybe watched telly while you sleep?”

Sarah Jane’s eyebrows flew up to her hairline. He knew how domestic the request sounded, but it wasn’t anything he hadn’t done before. He’d spent half the Christmas holidays on Jackie Tyler’s sofa, until Rose had been convinced he was well enough to travel again.

“Yeah, s’long as you don’t get popcorn in the couch cushions again,” Rose said, her tongue showing through her smile.

He grinned back. “I promise.”

Sarah Jane cleared her throat. “Mickey, would you mind helping me get K9 back into the car? He’s a bit heavy for me to lift by myself.”

The two of them managed to get the dog through the door, and the Doctor made to follow. However, Rose caught him by the sleeve as they exited the cafe. “Listen, I heard part of your conversation with Sarah Jane,” she said quietly.

“Eavesdropping, Rose? That’s not like you.”

Annoyance washed over him, but it was Rose’s, not his. _As soon as this is done, I’ve got to teach her how to keep from projecting._

“It’s a public place, Doctor, and you weren’t trying to keep your voice down or anything,” she pointed out.

He huffed out a breath. “Right, sorry.”

The annoyance softened into uncertainty. “So… is that what happens then, you let us travel with you for a while and then you just… leave us behind?”

_No. You leave me behind, you all leave me and I’m so all alone…_

Apparently he didn’t answer fast enough, because the line of her jaw tightened and her next words came out in a harsher clip. “I mean, is that what you’re going to do to me? I’ll just wake up one morning and you’ll have decided it’s time for me to go?”

“No.” The denial came from deep inside him. He’d known for months that he’d never let Rose go, not unless she asked. “Not to you.”

Rose opened her mouth, closed it, swallowed, and tried again. “But Sarah Jane? You were that close to her once, and now you never even mention her—not until today, when I asked you. Why not?”

The Doctor clenched his jaw and clamped down hard on his own mental barriers. “I don’t age. I regenerate. But humans decay.” Once again, he saw Rose lying dead after saving his life. All his companions died, but she’d already died, he’d seen it happen—how could he watch that happen again? “You wither, and you die. Imagine watching that happen to someone that you—”

He stopped the word in time, but he could feel her sudden hope and curiosity. “What, Doctor?”

He swallowed hard and gave her the only promise he could. “You can spend the rest of your life with me, but I can’t spend the rest of mine with you. I have to live on. Alone. That’s the curse of the Time Lords.”

On the edge of his range of hearing, he heard a whispered voice repeat the word. “Time Lord…”

He looked up, grateful for a distraction from the painful conversation with Rose. A giant bat swooped down, talons outstretched toward Sarah Jane. All four of them ducked back under the eaves of the cafe, and Sarah Jane gasped out, “Was that a Krillitane?”

“But it didn’t even touch her,” Rose pointed out. “It just flew off. What did it do that for?”

“A warning,” the Doctor said grimly. “Come on, let’s get some sleep. This ends tomorrow.”

************

Rose punched at her pillow and folded it in half before curling up on her side. _“Imagine that happening to someone you…”_ He’d stopped before he finished the sentence, but Rose had heard the word he’d swallowed back.

It wasn’t anything new, not really. But this was the closest he’d come to actually saying something. “I could save the world but lose you,” came close, but to barely stop himself from saying he loved her… A shiver ran down her spine. She wondered if he knew she’d picked up on what he wanted to say.

She rolled onto her back with a sigh. The Doctor was being as quiet as he ever was—meaning she could hear the low hum of the telly, interspersed with occasional mutterings from him as he argued with whatever program he was watching.

It wasn’t the noise that kept her up though. It was the agitation she could feel buzzing in the back of her mind, agitation that wasn’t her own. “Well, if I’m not gonna get any sleep, I might as well go see what’s bothering him,” she muttered and tossed the covers back.

The cool air hit her bare arms, and she grabbed a hoodie before leaving her room, pulling it on over her vest top. The Doctor looked up as she entered the living room. “Was I too loud?”

“Nah, ‘cept in here,” she said, tapping the side of her head. She ducked into the bathroom and took a couple paracetamol for the headache that sat behind her eyes before taking a seat beside him.

He frowned. “You shouldn’t be hearing anything, Rose—I’ve put up barriers.”

“It’s not thoughts,” she reassured him. “Just this… buzzing, like I can tell something’s bothering you.”

He snorted. “Why wouldn’t something be bothering me?” he asked. “An unscrupulous alien race is using children for who knows what, and then there’s…”

“There’s what, Doctor?” she asked when he didn’t finish the sentence.

“As long as you’re awake, why don’t we work on your mental barriers?”

Rose shook her head. That wasn’t what he’d been thinking, and she knew it. Still… “So if I’m getting things from you, does that mean you’re picking up things from me?

The Doctor sighed. “Yep. I’m being careful not to peek, but sometimes you think _so loud._ ”

Her cheeks warmed. There were definitely some thoughts she did not want the Doctor to see. “So, barriers. How does that work?”

He was quiet for a few minutes, and Rose took the moment to observe him. She’d always liked watching him think—she could practically see the wheels turning in that giant alien brain of his. But when there was something he was particularly intent on, his eyes half-closed and he’d press his tongue against the back of his teeth. And sometimes he’d put on the brainy specs…

“Ah!” he exclaimed, pulling her out of her reverie before it could become a full-fledged fantasy. “Remember how I told you to imagine doors in your mind, so I could tell what thoughts you wanted me to see?”

“Right.”

He turned slightly on the sofa so they were eye to eye. “So, this is basically the same thing. Picture everything that you are, everything that makes you Rose, and put a wall around it.”

She closed her eyes and furrowed her brow. “What kind of wall?” she asked quietly.

“Any kind. Just something that you think is, well, impregnable. It can’t have any vulnerabilities, or when you put it up, you’ll imagine those weak spots too and others will be able to find them.”

She opened her eyes just a crack and peeked out at him. “Are you saying I could actually get good enough at this to keep anyone from getting in?”

“Maybe not quite that good,” he allowed. “If they’re determined enough, there are ways to break you.”

The possible danger of telepathy hadn’t occurred to Rose before, and nodded firmly. “All right, Doctor,” she said, closing her eyes again. “I’m trying to picture the strongest wall I know.”

“I’ll give it a minute, and then I’ll try to peek into your mind. You should feel me, sort of like a mental tap on the shoulder. Don’t let it distract you. Let your barriers do their job.”

Rose nodded and concentrated on her barriers. A moment later, the presence she’d been aware of from the moment she’d woken up on the TARDIS two days ago shifted to something more insistent that floated round the outside of her consciousness, looking for a way in.

At first, Rose felt like she was doing a pretty good job keeping him out. But he buzzed about her head like an annoying gnat, and the strain of swatting at him constantly wore her out. She felt the moment he penetrated her barriers and opened her eyes with a sigh.

“Hey, don’t be so hard on yourself,” he said with a smile. “You’re learning how to use a brand new muscle; you can’t expect to master it overnight.”

Rose felt something from him though. “But something’s still bothering you. If this was only about practicing, you’d be okay with it. What am I doing wrong?”

He frowned. “That, Rose. That’s what’s wrong. I couldn’t read your mind until your barriers fell, but I still got everything you’re feeling. Let’s try again. This time, focus on keeping your emotions contained.”

She closed her eyes and tried to do what he said, but immediately, the headache she’d been nursing quadrupled in strength. The pain made it impossible to concentrate on anything, and a low moan escaped her lips.

“Rose?”

“My head… s’killing me.”

“Right, that’s enough of that. I’d forgotten the headaches and nausea that come as you develop your telepathic skills.”

This was the first time Rose had experienced it, but she felt too ill to argue with him as he helped her into bed. “We’ll work on this again later,” he promised her.

 


	6. Chapter 6

The next morning, the Doctor stood outside the school with Rose, Sarah Jane, and Mickey. Students were already going through the doors, completely unaware that an alien race was using them. His hands clenched and unclenched by his sides, and he laid the plan out for his companions.

“Rose and Sarah, you go to the maths room. Crack open those computers, I need to see the hardware inside. Here, you might need this.” He handed the sonic to Sarah Jane.

“Mickey, surveillance. I want you outside.”

“Just stand outside?” Mickey protested.

“Here, take these—you can keep K9 company,” Sarah suggested, tossing the car keys to Mickey.

“Don’t forget to leave the window open a crack,” the Doctor said over his shoulder as he started for the door.

“But he’s metal!”

“I didn’t mean for him.”

“What’re you going to do?” Rose asked.

“It’s time I had a word with Mr. Finch.”

But the headmaster wasn’t in his office. _Maybe in the teacher’s lounge,_ the Doctor thought, taking the stairs two at a time. That room was empty too, so he went back to the staircase. Peering down into the atrium, he spotted Finch, staring up at him. The Krillitane executed a precision turn and walked away slowly.

The Doctor could smell the chlorine before he even opened the red door. Inside, Finch was leaning against the wall on the far side of the pool. “Who are you?” the Doctor asked him.

“My name is Brother Lassa,” the Krillitane said, his voice echoing slightly against the walls. “And you?”

“The Doctor. Since when did Krillitanes have wings?”

Finch started pacing along the edge of the pool, and the Doctor mirrored his steps, keeping the same amount of distance between them. “It’s been our form for nearly ten generations now. Our ancestors invaded Bessan. The people there had some rather lovely wings. They made a million widows in one day. Just imagine.”

The Time Lord and the Krillitane stopped opposite each other at the middle of the pool. “And now you’re shaped human.”

“A personal favourite, that’s all.”

“And the others?”

“My brothers remain bat form. What you see is a simple morphic illusion. Scratch the surface and the true Krillitane lies beneath.”

_Ah, that’s how they’re doing it._

“And what of the Time Lords?” Finch asked, moving again toward the top end of the pool. “I always thought of you as such a pompous race. Ancient, dusty senators, so frightened of change and chaos. And of course, they’re all but extinct. Only you. The last.”

Finch’s words were designed to dig, but the thought of the children kept the Doctor focused. He slowly approached Finch, stopping when there was still fifteen feet between them. “This plan of yours. What is it?”

Finch tilted his head again in a vaguely avian manner. “You don’t know.”

“That’s why I’m asking.” The Doctor watched warily as Finch slowly closed the distance between them.

“Well, show me how clever you are. Work it out.”

Finch stopped only two feet away from the Doctor, and the Doctor met his gaze coolly. “If I don’t like it, then it will stop.”

“Fascinating,” Finch said, tilting and twisting his neck again as he stared at the Doctor. “Your people were peaceful to the point of indolence. You seem to be something new. Would you declare war on us, Doctor?”

“I’m so old now,” the Doctor said quietly, letting a hint of the Oncoming Storm show in his eyes. “I used to have so much mercy. You get one warning. That was it.”

The Doctor turned his back on the Krillitane, but Finch continued talking to his back as he walked away. “But we’re not even enemies. Soon you will embrace us.” That stopped the Doctor, and he turned back around. “The next time we meet, you will join with me. I promise you.”

Finch walked by him and the Doctor watched him leave the room, wondering at the meaning behind his none too subtle threat. Joining with a Krillitane was not like joining the Army or the Boy Scouts, and yet Finch was certain he’d be willing to do it—or unable to stop it from happening.

*******************

In the maths classroom, Rose leaned back in her chair, watching Sarah Jane try unsuccessfully to get into one of the computers. “So, what was the strangest thing you saw when you travelled with the Doctor?” she asked, fiddling with the zipper to her hoodie.

“Mummies,” Sarah Jane said absently, beating the sonic lightly against her palm. “It’s not working.”

“Give it to me.” Rose took the sonic from her and got down on her hands and knees.

“And you, Rose? Have you seen anything fantastic?” Sarah Jane asked.

Rose remembered a trip to Cardiff at Christmas. “I’ve met ghosts,” she said, finally getting the sonic to work.

“Used to work first time in my day,” Sarah Jane muttered.

There was something in her voice that Rose didn’t understand. Trying to keep the conversation from veering off too far, she said, “Just mummies, or was there anything else?”

“Robots,” she answered. “Lots of robots.”

Rose popped back up from under the table to type a command into the keyboard. “Slitheen, in Downing Street.”

“Daleks!” Sarah Jane said, and suddenly the conversation felt like two adventurers swapping stories.

“Met the emperor,” Rose said with a grin as the computer finally turned on.

“Anti-matter monsters.”

“Gas masked zombies.”

“Real living dinosaurs.”

“Real living werewolf.”

“The Loch Ness Monster!” Sarah Jane paused for a moment, and then said, “Rose, can I give you a bit of advice?”

Rose raised an eyebrow. “I’ve got a feeling you’re about to.”

“I know how intense a relationship with the Doctor can be, and I don’t want you to feel I’m intruding—”

“I don’t feel threatened by you, if that’s what you mean,” Rose interrupted. And it was the truth; if the Doctor hadn’t told her about Sarah Jane before they’d met, she might have felt differently, but his point that of course he’d had friends before had made sense.

Sarah Jane blinked. “Right. Good. Because everything we just said, there are only a handful of people on earth who could possibly understand what it’s like to live and travel with the Doctor.”

Rose brushed her hair behind her ear. “With you, did he do that thing where he’d explain something at like, ninety miles per hour, and you’d go, ‘What?’ and he’d look at you like you’d just dribbled on your shirt?”

Sarah Jane was nodding before Rose finished her sentence. “All the time.” She chuckled. “Does he still stroke bits of the TARDIS?”

“Yeah! Yeah, he does. I’m like, do you two want to be alone?” The last remaining bits of tension dissolved in laughter, and they were still laughing when the Doctor entered the room a moment later.

“How’s it going?” he asked, but seeing him when they’d just been talking about him sent them into greater hysterics. “What? Listen, I need to find out what’s programmed inside these.” Rose and Sarah Jane were nearly doubled over in laughter. “ What? Stop it!”

It was the feeling of annoyance, not his words or tone, that broke through to Rose, and she managed to calm down. “Sorry, we were just… sharing stories.”

“Fine, but let’s save the socialising until after we’ve saved the children. Did you get into one of the computers?”

Rose opened her mouth to answer, but a buzz over the loudspeaker interrupted her. “All pupils to class immediately,” a voice announced. “And would all members of staff please congregate in the staff room.”

“It’s started,” the Doctor said.

The hallway filled with children, and Rose moved to the door. “Sarah Jane, show him where we started. I’ll keep everyone out.”

The Doctor scanned the room. Rose and Sarah Jane had been gotten one of the computers turned on, but this system ran on a server. To access the program, he’d need to access the server.

He found the server under the teacher’s desk at the front of the room, nearly buried beneath a mountain of cables. Quick as a wink, he grabbed them and put them around his neck, then picked the server up and placed it on the desk.

He aimed the sonic at the switch, but the computer stayed in sleep mode. “I can’t shift it.”

“I thought the sonic screwdriver could open anything!” Sarah Jane protested.

“Anything except a deadlock seal. There’s got to be something inside here. What’re they teaching those kids?” he muttered as Rose rejoined them.

The three of them stared at the computer for a moment, each trying to come up with another plan. Then, without the Doctor doing anything, alien symbols flashed rapidly across every screen. “You wanted the programme?” Sarah Jane said. “There it is.”

The Doctor stared at the green writing. Something about it tickled at the back of his mind, but he couldn’t pinpoint what it was. “Some sort of code.”

One by one, symbols locked into place, and finally he realised what he was looking at. “No. No, that can’t be. The Skasis Paradigm. They’re trying to crack the Skasis Paradigm.”

“The Skasis what?” Sarah Jane asked.

“The God-maker,” he explained. “The universal theory. Crack that equation and you’ve got control of the building blocks of the universe. Time and space and matter, yours to control.”

“What, and the kids are like a giant computer?” Rose asked in disbelief.

“Yes.” Another bit of the equation locked into place. “And their learning power is being accelerated by the oil.” He paced the room, standing on the other side of a table from Rose and Sarah Jane. “That oil from the kitchens, it works as a, as a conducting agent. Makes the kids cleverer.”

“But that oil’s on the chips,” Rose said. “I’ve been eating them.”

The Doctor leaned over the table. “What’s fifty nine times thirty five?”

“Two thousand and sixty five.” Her eyes widened. “Oh, my God.”

“But why use children?” Sarah Jane asked. “Can’t they use adults?”

“No, it’s got to be children. The God-maker needs imagination to crack it. They’re not just using the children’s brains to break the code, they’re using their souls.”

Behind him, he heard quiet footsteps. “Let the lesson begin,” Mr. Finch said. “Think of it, Doctor. With the Paradigm solved, reality becomes clay in our hands. We can shape the universe and improve it.”

“Oh yeah? The whole of creation with the face of Mr. Finch? Call me old fashioned, but I like things as they are.”

Finch tilted his head. “You act like such a radical, and yet all you want to do is preserve the old order. Think of the changes that could be made if this power was used for good.”

Disgust burned in the Doctor’s throat. “What, by someone like you?”

“No, someone like you.”

The Doctor stared, not comprehending what Finch was saying. The Krillitane was happy to expound on the idea. “The Paradigm gives us power. but you could give us wisdom. Become a god at my side. Imagine what you could do. Think of the civilisations you could save. Perganon, Assinta. Your own people, Doctor, standing tall. The Time Lords reborn.”

“Doctor, don’t listen to him,” Sarah Jane implored.

“And you could be with him throughout eternity.” Finch walked around him, and the Doctor turned to watch him talk to Sarah Jane and Rose. “Young, fresh, never wither, never age, never die.”

The words hit a chord with the Doctor, and Finch must have known it. “Their lives are so fleeting. So many goodbyes. How lonely you must be, Doctor. Join us.”

It was perhaps the greatest temptation he’d ever faced. To not be alone anymore, to have his people back, to never lose another friend to the ravages of time. “I could save everyone.”

“Yes.”

“I could stop the war.” The war that had gone on for so long that by the end, he’d almost forgotten what Gallifrey had been like in a time of peace. The forests on Mount Cadon in ashes, the red grass scorched, and finally, Arcadia falling to the Daleks.

“No.” The emotion in Sarah Jane’s throat pulled the Doctor away from his imaginings. “The universe has to move forward. Pain and loss, they define us as much as happiness or love. Whether it’s a world, or a relationship, everything has its time. And everything ends.”

It was that final acceptance and forgiveness that gave the Doctor the strength to turn his back on this chance to change his past. On the screen behind Finch, symbols were still locking into place. They were so close, so close to the answer, but he couldn’t let it happen. No matter what it meant to him.

The Doctor grabbed a chair and threw it at the monitor, so the sight of the program wouldn’t taunt him anymore.

“Out!” he yelled at his friends, and the three of them ran out into the corridor ahead of Finch.

“Doctor, what’re we gonna do?” Rose asked as they raced down the corridor.

Before he could answer, they heard a loud sound of breaking glass from the main atrium. Looking down the stairs, the Doctor spotted Mickey with a student. He led the way downstairs, and Mickey met them a few seconds later.

“Kenny, the Doctor. Doctor, Kenny,” Mickey said. “What is going on?”

Before the Doctor could answer, three Krillitane flew at them. The Doctor grabbed Rose by the arm and led the group down the hall. “Oh, nothing much,” the Doctor he told Mickey. “Just, you know, aliens using kids to break the code that would let them control the entire universe.”

They burst through the doors into the canteen and raced across the room, but the doors on the other side were locked. The Doctor reached into his coat pocket for the sonic screwdriver just as the Krillitane swept into the room behind them, led by Finch.

“Are they my teachers?” Kenny asked.

“Yeah. I’m sorry.” The Doctor scanned the room for something, anything that would detain the Krillitane from following them out of the canteen.

“We need the Doctor alive,” Finch said. “As for the others? You can feast.”

On this command, the Krillitane swooped down at their heads. Everyone dove out of the way, grabbing chairs or whatever they could find to fend off the bat creatures. _Not enough, not enough. I need a diversion to give me time to get the door open._

A familiar red laser struck one of the Krillitane in the chest. “K9!” Sarah Jane shouted over Finch’s screams of rage.

“Suggest you engage running mode, Mistress,” the tin dog said.

The Doctor realised K9 had given them the distraction they needed to escape. “Come on!” He opened the door with the sonic and waited for Rose, Sarah Jane, and Mickey to leave, then called back, “K9, hold them back!”

“Affirmative, Master. Maximum defence mode.”

Out in the corridor, the Doctor locked the door again and then raced to the physics classroom. After everyone piled through the door, he locked it and leaned against his desk while they sat at the lab tables. _There must be something we can use against them, some substance that would be toxic to them._

He leaned against his desk and closed his eyes, trying to think. There was something… “It’s the oil,” he realised. “Krillitane life forms can’t handle the oil. That’s it! They’ve changed their physiology so often, even their own oil is toxic to them. How much was there in the kitchens?” he asked Rose.

“Barrels of it.”

Claws beat on the classroom door and Krillitanes screeched in fury outside the room. _Right. Time to put this plan into action then._ “Okay, we need to get to the kitchens. Mickey.”

“What now, hold the coats?” Mickey groused.

“Get all the children unplugged and out of the school.” Mickey nodded. “Now then, bats, bats, bats.” He drummed his fingers against his head. “How do we fight bats?”

The fire alarm rang through the hallway, and the Doctor could have kissed Kenny. _Of course! Bats can’t stand high pitched noises._ He laughed gleefully and pushed the door open.  The Krillitane couldn’t do anything to stop them with their hands pressed against their ears in agony, and they all ran past without difficulty.

Mickey broke off first, running toward the classrooms. The Doctor nodded briefly to him as they continued back toward the kitchen.

“Master.”

The Doctor paused for a second and patted his dog on the head. “Come on, boy. Good boy.”

“The vats are over here,” Rose panted as they ran into the kitchen.

The Doctor aimed the sonic at one, then shook his head. “They’ve been deadlock sealed.” He tried another, same result. “Finch must’ve done that. I can’t open them.”

“The vats would not withstand a direct hit from my laser, but my batteries are failing,” K9 said.

The Doctor’s mind worked a mile a minute. K9’s idea would work, but it would be dangerous. “Right. Everyone out the back door. K9, stay with me.”

Rose looked back over her shoulder at him, and the Doctor felt how much she hated leaving him in danger. He pushed that aside and worked to get the vats organised in the best formation for K9 to shoot.

“Capacity for only one shot, Master,” the tin dog said. “For maximum impact, I must be stationed directly beside the vat.”

The Doctor crouched down in front of his dog. “But you’ll be trapped inside.”

“That is correct.”

The pragmatism in the dog’s voice killed the Doctor. “I can’t let you do that.”

“No alternative possible, Master.”

The faint sounds of the Krillitane getting closer overrode the Doctor’s protest. “Goodbye, old friend,” he said quietly.

“Goodbye, Master.”

“You good dog.”

“Affirmative.” K9’s tail wagged, and the Doctor patted him one last time before jogging out through the back door.

“Where’s K9?” Sarah Jane asked as he sonicked the door shut.

“We need to run.”

But she wouldn’t move. “Where is he? What have you done?”

The Doctor grabbed a still protesting Sarah Jane by the shoulders and pulled her away. After a few steps, habit took over and she started running along with him.

Behind them, he heard the small first explosion that indicated K9 had hit the vats. He grabbed Sarah Jane’s hand and urged her to run faster, until they were out of reach of the second, stronger blast he knew would come.

Rose caught his eye over the crowd of students that Mickey had managed to get to safety, and he nodded just before the building exploded. School children jumped up and down in excitement as papers rained down on them like confetti, but beside him, Sarah Jane didn’t look like she was celebrating.

“I’m sorry,” he told her.

“It’s all right. He was just a daft metal dog. It’s fine, really.” She burst into tears, and he wrapped an arm around her.

The Doctor saw Rose approaching over the top of Sarah’s head. She arched an eyebrow in question, and he thought he could almost feel her concern. He nodded just slightly in response, and Rose stopped and leaned against the wall of the school to wait for him.

Sarah Jane pulled back a moment later and wiped at her eyes. “Well, I should be getting home,” she said. “Will you… will you be leaving today?”

A plan was forming in the Doctor’s mind, and he shook his head. “Not if Rose’s mum has her way,” he said. “Never one to miss a chance to serve her cottage pie, that one.”

Sarah Jane chuckled weakly. “You’ve changed, Doctor.”

“Nah, I haven’t.”

“No, you really have. And do you know what? I think it’s a good change.”

The approval of one of his oldest and best friends warmed his hearts. “Do you think so?”

“I do.” She smiled for real then. “There’s a park near my house on Bannerman Road. I’ll meet you there tomorrow afternoon at 3:00—and I’ll trust the TARDIS to get you there this time.”

Sarah Jane patted Rose on the shoulder, and then the Doctor watched her walk away all by herself. He was already mentally making a list of the parts he’d need for a new K9 unit.

“Come on then,” he said, and Rose raised an eyebrow at the false cheer. “Back to the TARDIS, both of you,” he said, looking at Mickey who had just walked up behind Rose.

Smoke wafted out of the building, but the stairs were still safe and the first floor seemed mostly untouched by the blast. Rose and the Doctor walked hand in hand back up the stairs to the TARDIS, Mickey trailing along behind them. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” she asked, bumping his shoulder with hers.

“That we just changed Kenny’s life?” he suggested, pushing through the storeroom door.

“No… that’s a thought though, innit?” Rose used her key to open the TARDIS doors while the Doctor made sure no one had seen them come in. “He’ll be the school hero for weeks, long enough for them to figure out he’s a good kid. It’s not always about the big things.”

“Not always, though I think stopping the evil aliens from taking over the planet yet again merits some acknowledgement. Now,” he said, squeezing her hand. “What were you thinking?”

“We should ask Sarah Jane to come with us.”

The Doctor stumbled into the TARDIS. He’d love to travel with Sarah Jane again, but he suspected she and Rose had been laughing at his expense earlier. _Do I really want Rose to learn all my old secrets from Sarah Jane?_

“Er… well…”

“It’s just… traveling with you is brilliant, Doctor, and I never want to quit.” A little of his anxiety eased at those words, but he felt a but coming. “Sometimes, it’s lonely though. Because you’ve seen so much and you understand it all, and I feel… it would be nice to not be the only person in the room who didn’t get it, that’s all.”

Mickey walked in before he could say anything to that—not that he knew exactly how to respond. _Do I make Rose feel like she’s somehow less than me?_

She waited for his answer, but as soon as Mickey closed the door behind him, the Doctor said, “All right, I’ll drop you off at the Estate for the evening. Rose, be ready to leave tomorrow at three. I told Sarah Jane we’d meet her at a park near her house.”

“I’m surprised she trusted you to make it, after what happened last time,” Rose teased.

“Oi! I’ll have you know I’m the best TARDIS pilot in the universe.”

“I’m pretty sure you’re the only one, mate,” Mickey said.

************

Rose was still chuckling over the Doctor’s indignant reaction to Mickey’s zinger when she zipped her pack shut the next day. “Taking off again?” her mum said.

“Mum,” Rose said on a sigh.

“I just don’t understand why you can’t stay in one place for even a week, that’s all. But I guess himself don’t do that.”

There wasn’t any heat behind the words, and Rose was in too good a mood to argue, so she just kissed her on the cheek as she stepped through the door. “I’ll call you,” she promised.

In the stairwell, she heard another door open and Mickey followed her out of the building. “Where’re you going?” she asked.

“I’m coming with you. See, I know how it works. You didn’t even remember to say goodbye. So I’m coming with you to the park.”

Rose bit back a retort. She knew Mickey’s words were supposed to make her feel guilty, because yeah, she had been about to leave without stopping to saying goodbye. _Thought we sorta did last night though._

But if he wanted to follow her onto the TARDIS to prove a point, she wasn’t going to stop him. The Doctor raised an eyebrow when he trailed in behind her, but she shook her head quickly.

“What’s this?” she asked, spotting something shiny in the corner.

“Just something I made for Sarah Jane last night,” he said, moving around the console and setting the coordinates for the park.

 _Ah, a new K-9 then_ , Rose realised. “Right, I’m gonna just go put my pack in my room while you take us to the park.”

She had just stepped back into the corridor when she felt the soft jolt that indicted the TARDIS had rematerialised. Rose ran a hand over the wall. _You got us here on time?_ An affirmative answer washed over her, and she stroked the rondel in thanks.

It occurred to her as she jogged back to the console room that she’d just done exactly what she and Sarah Jane had laughed at the Doctor for—stroking bits of the TARDIS and having a private conversation with the ship. She felt the time ship’s amusement and grinned to herself. 

Sarah Jane was just entering the TARDIS when she reached the console room. Rose watched from the shadows as the other woman took in the cavernous room. The surprise on her face didn’t make any sense until she said, “You’ve redecorated.”

“Do you like it?” His eagerness to please was painfully evident, and Rose’s heart ached for him. How must it feel, to always be leaving behind the people you love? _Maybe he does it because he doesn’t know if they’ll stay with him when he changes._

Sarah Jane ran her hand over one of the coral pillars. “Oh, I, I do. Yeah. I preferred it as it was, but… It’ll do.”

Rose peeked out from behind a strut. “I love it,” she said, feeling the warm hum from the TARDIS as she wrapped her arm around the coral.

Sarah Jane chuckled. “Hey you, what’s forty seven times three hundred and sixty nine?”

The answer came to her automatically. “17,343.”

“See, you’re more than a match for him,” Sarah Jane said, tilting her head toward the Doctor.

Rose blinked at the barrage of emotions she felt from the Doctor. Concern and pleasure seemed to be warring against each other, and she couldn’t understand either of them.

“You and me both,” she said, resolving to ignore it for now. “Doctor?”

He looked up from the console panel he’d been staring at. “Um, we’re about to head off, but you could come with us.” He grinned then, and Rose let out a breath of relief. She hadn’t been sure what his answer would be.

But Sarah Jane was shaking her head before the Doctor had finished asking the question. “I can’t do this anymore. Besides, I’ve got a much bigger adventure ahead. Time I stopped waiting for you and found a life of my own.” Rose nodded; she understood more than anyone how easy it could be to lose sight of who you were while traveling with the Doctor.

“Can I come?” Mickey asked and Sarah Jane’s eyes widened. “No, not with you,” he corrected quickly, then looked at the Doctor. “I mean with you. Because I’m not the tin dog, and I want to see what’s out there.”

 _So that’s why he wanted to tag along this afternoon._ Arguments stuck in Rose’s throat. Sarah Jane understood what it was like to live with the Doctor; they could have commiserated and encouraged each other. But Mickey… he’d never done anything but try to convince her to stay on the Estate.

Sarah Jane walked around the console to stand beside him. “Oh, go on, Doctor. Sarah Jane Smith, and Mickey Smith. You need a Smith on board.”

The Doctor glanced over at Rose, and she knew he could tell how much she wanted him to say no. On the other hand, they both knew how impossibly rude that would be, and she knew what his answer would be before he opened his mouth. “Okay then, I could do with a laugh.”

“Rose, is that okay?” Mickey asked, but it was too late.

“No, great,” Rose said, and she didn’t care if Mickey could tell she was lying. “Why not?”

“Well, I’d better go,” Sarah Jane said.

Rose hugged her good-bye, then asked the one question that had been on her mind for the last twenty four hours. She wouldn’t leave the Doctor; she’d seen the naked fear in his eyes when talked about losing his friends. But on the other hand… “What do I do if he decides to leave me behind?”

Sarah Jane looked over her shoulder, and Rose knew the Doctor was behind her. “You come find me, if you need to one day—find me.”

 

 


	7. Chapter 7

The Doctor escaped the console room for his private study the minute they were in the Vortex. Rose didn’t know the room existed, which suited his current mood perfectly.

The study, like all of the rooms on the TARDIS, changed from time to time to match the evolving personality of her Time Lord. Right now, the walls were a dark blue and two comfy chairs flanked the fireplace. The second chair was a bit of a mystery-not-mystery, since he never invited companions to join him here. Still, this is what the room had looked like when he’d peeked in on Christmas Day, and he hadn’t argued with his TARDIS.

He hadn’t argued because he knew who the other chair was supposed to be for. The TARDIS was well aware of his feelings for Rose Tyler, and had provided a none too subtle hint of what she thought he should do.

He could feel Rose’s annoyance as clearly as if she were in the room with him. She’d not wanted Mickey along, and she didn’t particularly care for being saddled with him. He leaned against the mantel and ran his other hand through his hair. That right there—that was why he needed to get away from her. No matter how many barriers he put up, he could still tell almost exactly how she was feeling.

“Oh, this is nice!”

The Doctor whirled around to face Rose. “Rose! How did you find me?”

“TARDIS in my head, ‘member?” Rose said with a shrug.

“Ah, right.” _Traitor._

He flung himself down into one of the chairs. “Well, since you’re here, have a seat.”

She took the other chair and looked around the room. “What is this place, Doctor?”

He steadfastly refused her eyes. The TARDIS finally had her here, where she thought Rose belonged, but that didn’t mean he had to go along with whatever plans his ship had. “My study.”

Her embarrassment took him by surprise. “Right… of course, this is private. I don’t know why the TARDIS let me in, I’ll just go.”

Without much thought, his hand shot out to grab her wrist. “You can stay,” he said, even as part of him wondered what on Gallifrey he was thinking. “Sit back down and tell me why you came looking for me.”

The Doctor released her wrist so she could sit down, and once she was settled in the chair, she pulled both her legs up and stared at the fire. “Rose?” He could tell she was nervous—both her mood and her body language were an open book—but he didn’t understand why.

She closed her eyes for a minute, and when she opened them again, a mask had fallen. “I wanted to ask about… about telepathy.”

He raised an eyebrow but let her get away with the obvious attempt at misdirection. “What do you want to know?”

“Well…” Rose brushed a hand over the arm of the chair. “You said we’d have to be touching for you to read my mind, yeah? But we hold hands all the time, so there’s got to be more to it than that.”

He stretched his legs out in front of him. “There is. Remember how I put my hands on your temples before?” She nodded. “The telepathic centres of the brain are very close to the temple, and that touch—for a touch telepath—provides the needed physical contact for a mental connection.”

“So would I be able to do that? Like, if I touched Mum on the temple, would I be able to read her mind?”

“Once your telepathy is fully developed, but…” A stray thought caught him, like he’d been trying to put his finger on something not quite right and it had suddenly fall into place.

“What is it, Doctor?”

“Rose, have you had any headaches, nausea, any discomfort since we learned about your telepathy?”

“No—well, except for the other night, when we were working on barriers.”

“That’s… that’s not… you should…” The Doctor rubbed the back of his neck.

Rose raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms. “Are you saying you want me to be sick?”

“Of course not, but Rose, developing the telepathic circuits of the brain is not a comfortable experience! You should at least be getting headaches. We all got headaches.”

The TARDIS hummed in the back of his mind, but he ignored her. He needed to figure this out.

“D’you think the TARDIS is helping?” Rose suggested.

The hum grew stronger. “Well… she does have an extremely strong telepathic field. I suppose it’s possible she’s connected with you enough to block those negative side effects. Time Tots were always forbidden to enter the nurseries when our telepathy was developing; maybe that’s why?”

“Nursery?”

He shot her a look. “Honestly Rose, you know she’s alive. Why does it surprise you that they’re grown?” Reproof buffeted him from two directions. “Sorry,” he muttered.

“What do you mean, she’s connected with me?”

“If I’m right, and she seems to be saying I am, then she’s in your mind, keeping you from getting sick.”

Rose snuggled back in her chair. “Is he right?” she whispered.

The Doctor felt his ship’s confirmation and Rose’s answering gratitude, and a rock lodged itself in the pit of his stomach. “Oh, this is bad. This is… this is bad.”

“What’s so bad about it?”

“Well, I might have just realised why our attempts at blocking emotions gave you a headache.”

The Doctor glanced over at Rose, hoping she was already following along with what he was saying, but the little furrow in her brow told him he’d have to explain further.

“What’s that got to do with this?”

“Time Lords are bonded to their TARDISes, Rose. We call it a telepathic link, but really it’s more empathic.”

“Yeah, that’s why she couldn’t translate when you were sick, right?”

He nodded, rubbing at his temples. “And if she’s in your mind all the time, keeping you from getting sick, then you and I are already connected on a shallow level, just like I’m connected to her.”

Rose chuckled. “What exactly are you finding amusing about this?” the Doctor asked, a bit testily.

“Nothing… s’just, I don’t think the TARDIS liked you calling your connection shallow,” she said and giggled.

The Doctor’s mouth dropped open. “You could feel that?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Well, I think we just proved my theory.” He rubbed at his face.

“I still don’t quite get why this is bad.”

“My connection with her, and yours too I’d guess, they always stay open. She needs mine to function—hence the translation matrix not working, as you pointed out. And you… you need yours to hold the pain at bay.” His head dropped to the back of his chair and glared up at his interfering ship. “So we’re both constantly connected to the same TARDIS. It’s like a three-way conference call.”

The Doctor finally felt a hint of understanding from Rose. “A three-way conference call we can’t hang up on.”

“Exactly.”

“Guess you’ll just have to learn not to react to things emotionally,” Rose told him cheekily.

The Doctor tried to tamp down his anxiety. “I’m sorry, Rose,” he offered. “If I’d known this would happen, I never…”

“You never what?” she asked. “Never would have offered to go into my mind? Because we both know that’s why all this is happening. If you hadn’t looked to make sure the effects of Bad Wolf were still contained, I never…”

“Never would have fully developed your telepathic abilities,” he finished. He’d figured that out, but hadn’t known if Rose knew.

Rose fiddled a bit with the hem of her shirt, and he waited for her to say something, for her anger that he’d messed around with her head like this, for her to ask the TARDIS to remove their connection because she’d rather feel the headaches than be reminded of what he’d done.

“I know you… you said this is bad, I know you don’t want it, but…” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “I’m glad you did it,” she said.

He stared at her in confusion. “Glad I did what?”

Rose sighed and looked up at him. “I’m glad you went and unlocked that room. I feel… I feel like this is what I was supposed to be, like I’ve been sorta waiting for this since the Game Station.”

The Doctor refused to think about what else had happened at the Game Station, knowing there was no way Rose could miss the change in his emotions if he thought of her… “You’re not…” He cleared his throat. “You’re not angry?”

“Um, no. Should I be?” Rose took in the way his lower lip stuck out a bit farther, the way it did when he was unsure of himself. “You were blaming yourself for this again, weren’t you?”

“What? Of course I wasn’t,” he said. “What’s there to blame myself for? You’re fine, I’m fine… we’re all fine.”

The surge of affection she felt for this daft alien was so familiar to Rose that she hardly gave it a thought, until she noticed the Doctor’s hand had frozen on his tie. She took in his unblinking stare and put the pieces of the conversation together in a way she hadn’t until now.

_Right. Constantly aware of what the other is feeling…_

A warm flush crept up Rose’s face. “Doctor…”

“Yep, we’re all fine,” he repeated and jumped out of his chair. “Anyway, my stomach says it’s time for tea. Where’d you leave Mickey?”

“He’s in the media room, watching football most likely.”

The Doctor bounced on the balls of his feet. “You go get him and I’ll get us something to eat. Galley, ten minutes,” he said, pointing at her and then practically running out of the room.

When he’d explained their connection, Rose’s first thought had been, _Well, that explains why I actually felt what you meant last night when you talked about what it would be like to lose someone you love._ Even if he hadn’t been broadcasting his emotions, she still would have known how that sentence was gonna end—because in the context, could it end any other way? But her absolute assurance that he loved her had gone beyond just knowing him.

Which was why she’d teased him about being more careful about what he let slip. She hadn’t figured on that going both ways. “Guess you’re not the only one who’s going to have to learn not to react to things emotionally,” Rose muttered. She bit her lip and stared into the fire, more than a little worried that this would drive the Doctor away from her.

Even all the way from the galley, she could still feel his agitation. The ball of emotions was so jumbled up, she had a hard time picking out the different strands of it. Fear, disbelief, discomfort…

Rose squeezed her eyes shut. This was why she’d never told the Doctor she loved him, even though she’d been pretty sure he felt the same. Dealing with the Doctor and emotions was sort of like approaching a wounded animal—you had to go slowly, or you’d scare him off. _And you might get hurt in the process,_ she added grimly, thinking about how quickly he’d bolted when she’d accidentally shown him just the smallest hint of what she felt for him.

His discomfort shifted slightly, and she paid attention to the change without really meaning to. He was still struggling with the realisation that she loved him, but… His emotions were shot through with the uncomfortable feeling of being exposed, something she wouldn’t recognise if she hadn’t felt the same way. _Ah. Of course, he’s figured out I know he loves me too._

For the first time since they’d discovered she was telepathic, Rose was unhappy with the changes. The TARDIS hummed soothingly, but she wasn’t reassured. “What if he feels so trapped or whatever that he chucks me out?”

The ship’s obvious exasperation drew a smile from her, and she finally got out of her chair. “Hopefully you’re right, Dear,” she murmured. “After all, we can’t let him split us up, can we?”

 

 


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we begin the GITF rewrite. I didn't know quite what to do when I approached this story, since it's out of character for the canon characters. Finally I did a bare bones outline of the basic plot and kept the lines that were either A) crucial to that plot, or B) still fit with the characters and the changes that have happened to date in the story. Some scenes were cut, and some were moved or rearranged. I'm sure that won't bother most of you.

Boredom caught the Doctor by surprise the next morning when he was shaving, until he realised it wasn’t his own. _This is going to take some getting used to,_ he thought as he rinsed his face and then wiped the remnants of shaving cream off with a towel.

Picking up on her boredom was child’s play compared to what had happened last night though. His hand shook a little as he tied his tie, remembering the moment he’d known, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that she loved him. In true-to-form contradictory fashion, knowing she returned his feelings only made him more terrified of them. If she loved him too, he didn’t have a reason to hold back.

_And if I take that step and we’re together, losing her will hurt so much more._

Right. That was his reason to hold back. He shook himself out of those morose thoughts and grabbed his jacket and coat on the way out of his bedroom. Rose and Mickey were both leaning against the railing and looked at him expectantly when he entered the console room. The Doctor put his hands in his pockets and looked at his companions. “Well, Mickey—first trip, where do you want to go? Past, future…”

Mickey rubbed his hands together. “Surprise me, Boss,” Mickey said.

Rose grinned and the Doctor darted around the console. “Surprise it is!” he said, setting the randomiser and throwing the ship into flight.

They watched the Time Rotor churn into action and waited until they had settled onto the surface of wherever they were. The Doctor pretended the buzz of excitement he felt was only his own, and gestured grandly toward the door once they’d landed.

“Anything could be outside this door,” he said dramatically. “Alien worlds, the far distant past…”

 _That_ amusement wasn’t his. He looked over his shoulder at Rose, who was barely holding in her laugher. “Is there a problem, Miss Tyler?”

“Why don’t we just open the door and find out what’s on the other side, instead of trying to sound so impressive,” she suggested.

The Doctor rolled his eyes and pushed the doors open, exiting and letting Rose and Mickey follow him into a darkened spaceship. “It’s a spaceship,” Mickey crowed. “Brilliant, I got a space ship on my first go.”

“Looks kind of abandoned,” Rose observed, and he let her feel his pride in her for looking past the outer appearances. “Anyone on board?” she asked him.

“Nah, nothing here,” he said, rocking back on his heels. “Well, nothing dangerous. Well. Not that dangerous.” He looked around and realised something didn’t feel quite right. Not dangerous maybe, but… “Know what, I’ll just have a quick scan, in case there’s anything dangerous.”

While he looked into the terminal, Rose looked over his shoulder. “So, what’s the date? How far have we gone?”

“About three thousand years into your future, give or take.” He flicked a switch and opened the window to the outside. “Fifty-first century. Dagomar Cluster, you’re a long way from home, Mickey. Two and a half galaxies!”

“Mickey Smith,” Rose said gently, “meet the universe.”

The Doctor looked over the computers again, fully tuning out Rose and Mickey. There was something not right here. “Dear me, we’ve had some cowboys in here,” he muttered, tossing lengths of wire and parts out from under the terminal. “There’s a ton of repair work going on.”

One of the displays caught his attention and he bent over the console to take a better look. A full scan of the ship was running, and the Doctor raised an eyebrow at the unusual results. “Now that’s odd; look at that.” Mickey left the porthole to look over his shoulder, and the Doctor pointed at the screen. “All the warp engines are going, full capacity!”

He leaned over the display, making sure he wasn’t reading it wrong. “There’s enough power running through this ship to punch a hole in the universe,” he said, then peered back up at the stationary stars, “but we’re not moving… So where’s all that power going?”

“Where have all the crew gone?” Rose asked.

The Doctor frowned and looked at the display again. “Good question. No life sign readings on board.”

“Well, we’re in deep space, they didn’t just nip out for a quick fag.”

“No, I’ve checked all the smoking pods…”Something tickled at his nose and he straightened up. “Do you smell that?”

Rose took in a deep breath. “Someone’s cooking.”

“Sunday roast, definitely!” Mickey exclaimed.

The Doctor flicked a switch on the console. They all followed the sound of the loud hiss behind them and turned to see a door opening up. A door which revealed a fireplace that, by the looks of it, was eighteenth century French revival—not a period popular in fifty-first century decor.

“Well, there’s something you don’t see on your average spaceship.” He jogged over to it, pulling his sonic out as he moved. Up close, he could tell that his earlier assumptions were correct. “Eighteenth century. French. Nice mantle.” He scanned the fireplace, and the results proved one of his ides wrong. “Not a hologram. It’s not even a reproduction. This actually _is_ an eighteenth century French fireplace. Double sided. There’s another room through there.”

He got down on his haunches to look through the fireplace. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Rose stand on tiptoe to look through a porthole. “It can’t be; that’s the outer hull of the ship—look.”

But the Doctor was more concerned with what he saw through the fireplace: a young girl, about seven or eight, dressed in period clothing. “Hello,” he said, kneeling down and peering through the flames.

“Hello,” she replied, and he immediately recognised that she was speaking eighteenth century French.

_Curiouser and curiouser._

“What’s your name?”

Rose leaned down and looked through the fireplace with him.

“Reinette.”

“Reinette. That’s a lovely name.” He glanced around her room, trying to gather some more clues to this mystery. “Can you tell me where you are at the moment, Reinette?”

“In my bedroom.”

 _Yes, that much was evident from your nightgown._ “And… where’s your bedroom? Where do you live, Reinette?” he pressed the child.

“In Paris, of course.”

Her calm assurance that everyone would live in Paris, of course, was so typical for her age and era that he had to bite back a smile. “Paris, right,” he said.

“Monsieur, what are you doing in my fireplace?”

Ah yes, that was rather the point of things, wasn’t it? What _was_ he doing in her fireplace, or rather, what was her fireplace doing on a fifty-first century spaceship?

“Oh, it’s just a… routine… fire check,” he told her. “Can you tell me what year it is?”

She smiled the smile that all children give when adults are being ridiculous. “Of course I can! Seventeen hundred and twenty-seven.”

“Right, lovely,” the Doctor said, nodding, thinking of all the good music written in 1727. “One of my favourites.” He paused for a moment, remembering the nasty summer weather. “August is rubbish though. Stay indoors,” he advised Reinette.

“Okay!” he said, moving back to the topic. “That’s all for now. Hope you enjoy the rest of the fire—night night!”

“Good night, monsieur,” she said as he stood up, his mind racing.

“But you said this was the fifty-first century,” Mickey protested.

The Doctor inwardly rolled his eyes at the pouty tone. “I also said this ship was generating enough power to punch a hole in the universe. I _think_ we just found the hole. Trans spatial-temporal hyperlink,” he muttered, rattling off terms that seemed relevant to the case.

“What’s that?” Mickey whispered.

The Doctor rocked back on his heels. “No idea. I just made it up. Didn’t want to say magic door.”

The three of them glanced back at the fireplace, the Doctor’s mind whirring with what he’d learned from Reinette. Rose’s curiosity glowed pink at the edge of his consciousness. “And on the other side of the _magic door,_ ” she said, her tongue sticking through her teeth, “is France in 1727?”

“Well, she was speaking French,” the Doctor allowed. “Right period French too.” He tossed his coat over a chair and turned back to the fireplace.

“She was speaking English, I heard it,” Mickey countered.

“That’s the TARDIS, translates for ya,” Rose explained, grabbing him by the shoulders.

“Even French?” Mickey asked, his voice going higher.

The Doctor smirked; he could feel Rose’s amusement with Mickey—he’d believe the TARDIS could translate, but not one of the most common Earth languages?

But the magic door held the Doctor’s attention. If he could see through, there had to be a way to get to the other side, preferably without being singed in the flames. He examined the mantle and found a lever on one side. “Gotcha,” he said, pulling up on it.

“Doctor!” Exasperation coloured Rose’s voice, and he shot her a cheeky grin. Jumping in without a plan, that was his modus operandi.

On the other side, in what was apparently eighteenth century Paris, Reinette was now asleep in her bed. The Doctor frowned a bit to himself; he hated it when children became involved in his adventures, because they were so easily hurt.

He looked around the room, searching for something out of place, some reason why her bedroom would be connected to the spaceship. From her window, he saw Paris in winter, with Notre Dame towering over the city. On the street below, he heard horses’ hooves clattering on the cobblestones; so far, everything matched up with the date and place she had given.

A horse neighing woke the child from her slumber, and she sat bolt upright in bed. “It’s okay,” he said, realising she was aware of his presence. “Don’t scream; it’s me, it’s the fireplace man. Look,” he said, pulling out his sonic and using it to light the candle by her bed. “We were talking, just a moment ago. I was in your fireplace.”

Reinette’s eyes widened. “Monsieur, that was weeks ago. That was months!”

“Really?” he asked, scratching behind his ear. He hadn’t gotten the month from Reinette before, or he would have noticed the displacement the moment he’d appeared in her rom.

He walked back to the fireplace. “There must be a loose connection,” he said, tapping under the mantle next to the lever. “Need to get a man in.”

“Who are you?” she demanded. “And what are you doing here?”

The Doctor hardly noticed her question, his attention focused on something much, much more important. The mantle clock was broken, but… But then… “Okay, that’s scary.”

“You’re scared of a broken clock?” she said, her voice full of disdain.

“Just a bit scared, yeah. Just a little tiny bit. Because you see if this clock’s broken,” he turned back to Reinette, “and it’s the only clock in the room…” He double-checked the room. “Then what’s that?”

Reinette tilted her head, listening to the ominous sound. The skin around her mouth tightened when she realised that something in her clock-less room was ticking, loudly and nearby.

“Because you see, that’s not a clock,” the Doctor said, listening properly now. “You can tell by the resonance. Too big. Six feet, I’d say—the size of a man.”

“What is it?” she said, her voice trembling.

The Doctor slowly worked his way back to the bed, checking behind the curtains for the ticking thing. “Now let’s think,” he said. “If you were a thing that ticked and you were hiding in someone’s bedroom, first thing you’d do is kill the clock. No one notices the sound of one clock ticking, but two…” He listened closely to the direction the sound was coming from, and realised it was under her bed. “You might start to wonder if you were really alone.”

“Stay on the bed. Right in the middle. Don’t put your hands or feet over the edge.” Reinette froze in the centre of the bed and the Doctor bent down onto the checkerboard floor and waved the sonic under the bedskirt. A hand reached out and knocked it away, with a sound of a gear popping.

The Doctor spotted black buckle dress shoes on the other side of the bed, and he straightened slowly, keeping his eyes trained in that direction. “Reinette,” he whispered when he saw a large droid dressed in a black formal coat lurking in the curtains. “Don’t look round.”

“You, stay exactly where you are,” he ordered the droid. “Hold still, let me look.”

He’d seen something on the sonic before it was knocked away, but it couldn’t… To be certain, he took Reinette’s head in his hands and initiated the most basic telepathic link. “You’ve been scanning her brain. What, you’ve crossed two galaxies and thousands of years just to scan a child’s brain? What could there be in a little girl’s mind worth blowing a hole in the universe?”

“I don’t understand,” Reinette said. “It wants me?” She turned to the droid. “You want me?”

The droid cocked its head. “Not yet. You are incomplete.”

“Incomplete? What’s that mean, incomplete?” The droid stared at him from behind his garish mask. “You can answer her, you can answer me. What do you mean, incomplete?” he demanded, pointing the sonic at it.

The droid came around the bed and extended its arm toward the Doctor, and a sharp blade slid beneath his nose. “Monsieur, be careful!” the little girl squealed from her bed.

“Just a nightmare, Reinette,” he said, the fear in her voice sparking his anger. “Don’t worry about it. Everyone has nightmares.”

The Doctor and the droid began a dangerous dance, the monster slashing its arm over and over, and the Doctor avoiding every slice. “Even monsters from under the bed have nightmares, don’t you Monster?” The droid slashed at him one more time and the Doctor dodged yet again, grinning when the blade sank into the soft wood on the mantelpiece.

“What do monsters have nightmares about?” Reinette asked, and he was gratified that she sounded curious now, instead of scared.

“Me!” the Doctor claimed with a triumphant cackle, flipping the lever on the mantle and taking the droid with him back to a spaceship in the fifty-first century—where he strongly suspected he came from.

“Doctor!” Rose shouted when they appeared, but he didn’t have time to answer. He ran for a fire extinguisher mounted on the wall and fired it at the droid.

The cold air froze it in place. “Excellent, ice gun,” Mickey said.

“Fire extinguisher,” the Doctor countered, tossing it at Rose.

She caught it handily and asked, “Where’d that thing come from?”

“Here.”

“So why’s he dressed like that?” Mickey asked.

“Field trip to France, some kind of basic camouflage protocol.” The Doctor walked over to the droid. Now that the danger was over, he wanted to see what exactly this creature was made of.

“Nice needlework,” he said, looking at the white lace cravat cascading down its front. “Shame about the face,” he added, then tilted the mask back to reveal an intricate set of gears. _Well, that explains the ticking_.

“Oh, you are beautiful!” he exclaimed, taking in the workmanship of the piece.

He pulled out his specs to take a closer look. As soon as he slipped them on, he was blindsided by a burst of emotion from Rose. When he glanced over his shoulder at her, her cheeks were tinged faintly pink, and her chest rose and fell with rapid breaths.

_Well that’s interesting…_

Setting her obvious attraction aside and resolutely ignoring how beautiful she was, he looked at the droid again. “No really, you are, you’re gorgeous—look at that!” he told Rose and Mickey. “Space age clockwork, I love it. I’ve got chills!” The droid kept ticking, and the Doctor got the distinct impression he was being watched. “Listen, seriously. I mean this from the heart—and by the way,” he pointed to his chest, “count both—it would be a crime, it would be an act of vandalism, to disassemble you.”

Behind him, he heard Rose heft the fire extinguisher up. Amusement came through now, though the earlier spike of attraction hadn’t faded.

The reminder that she was there, and that the droid had threatened a child, strengthened his resolve. “But that won’t stop me,” he said, raising his sonic.

The droid tilted its head, the cold blast from the fire extinguisher wearing off. It managed to tap its left hand against its right arm, and it was gone.

The Doctor watched the beam of light as it disappeared into the ceiling. “Short range teleport, can’t have gone far—could still be on board!” he said as he replaced his sonic inside his suit jacket.

Rose hefted her fire extinguisher. “Well come on then,” she said, her eyes shining. “Sounds like we’ve got work to do.”

The Doctor glanced at the fireplace, then back at Rose. Reinette was a mystery that piqued his curiosity, but on the other hand, the droid was their best clue to solving it. “Lead the way, Rose Tyler.”

Rose put her fire extinguisher under her left arm and inspected the two corridors that branched off from the fireplace room. They’d come from the right, so she pointed left. “This way.”

The Doctor fell into step beside her a moment later, and for the first time she could remember, Rose was a little uncomfortable with his closeness. He’d felt her reaction to his glasses earlier, she was sure of it. She hadn’t realised their connection would leave her feeling this… exposed.

Surprisingly, after the way he’d run away from her last night, he didn’t seem too upset to find out she fancied him. _Or maybe he knew that already, or maybe he’s like any other bloke and enjoyed the little ego stroke._ Whatever the case, she had a feeling navigating the maze of which emotions would scare him off and which he could handle would be giving her a worse headache than her budding telepathy.

“Look at this!” Mickey’s voice yanked Rose back to their current adventure. “That’s an eye in there. That’s a real eye.”

The Doctor took a peek while Rose looked around the corridor. There was a small hatch in the wall and she opened it. Immediately, a familiar _thump-thump_ filled the air.

Mickey left the eyeball to peer inside. “What is that? What’s that in the middle there? Looks like it’s wired in.”

“It’s a heart, Mickey. It’s a human heart.”

The Doctor rubbed his nose and stuck his tongue out slightly, but Rose could feel his curiosity under the evident disgust. She rolled her eyes at him and whispered, “The worse things are, the better you like it.” He shrugged sheepishly, and she rolled her eyes again.

They left the disturbing find, and in twenty feet, reached a junction. “Which way, O Fearless Leader?” the Doctor asked.

After looking in all three directions, Rose tilted her head right. Mickey grabbed her elbow. “Shouldn’t we be like, leaving clues so we know how to get back?”

Rose felt certain she could find her way back exactly the way they’d come—in fact, if she concentrated, she could point straight at the TARDIS. “We’ve never gotten lost before,” she said, looking over at the Doctor.

He puffed out his chest slightly. “That’s because I’m a Time Lord. We’ve got dozens of extra senses, and one of them is the ability to retrace our steps perfectly.”

Faint alarm bells rang in the back of Rose’s mind. That was almost exactly what she’d thought a moment ago. “So, let’s turn left,” she said quickly, wanting to cover the curiosity before the Doctor could feel it.

She turned around to walk backwards a few steps so she could talk to Mickey. “Keep your eyes open. We might find anything—” She squealed and whirled around when something pressed into her neck.

“Like, for instance a horse,” the Doctor said, grabbing the reins as the animal shied away. He petted his nose and cooed, “It’s all right, you just startled her. She’s not going to hurt you. Here Rose, why don’t you pet him so he knows you’re nice?”

Rose reached out a hand and stroked his silky neck. “Yeah, m’sorry,” she said, smiled when he pushed his nose against her hand and nickered softly.

“He likes you,” the Doctor said.

“How can you tell?”

“I speak horse,” he said, and Rose just nodded. _Of course he does._

“This is just… just… mental,” Mickey spluttered. “Cameras with eyes, and hearts, and now a horse, and you’re both acting like this is normal. Is this an average day?”

The Doctor tucked his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels. “An average day? Who wants an average day, Mickey Smith? We travel to leave average behind! Life in the TARDIS means no more average days.”

Mickey rubbed at his eyebrow. “Yeah, all right. So where did the horse come from then?”

Rose grinned. “Now you’re asking the right questions. Let’s follow him, see where he goes.” She turned the horse around and tapped it lightly on the rump. “Go on, go home,” she encouraged.

“Home” was apparently a word the horse understood. He immediately started down the corridor, leading them straight to glossy white barn doors, which they pushed through to find themselves in a spacious garden.

The Doctor sucked in a breath. This riddle grew more complex by the minute. A fireplace that opened onto eighteenth century France, a ship built with human parts, and a barn door that also led to the eighteenth century, his time senses confirmed.

“Think we should look around?” Rose asked.

“Definitely. But…” He took her fire extinguisher and set his and hers down on the other side of the doors. “We shouldn’t need those here, and they’ll attract too much attention if we’re seen.”

That taken care of, he led the way toward a terraced section of the garden. “So when and where are we?” Rose asked, slipping her hand into his.

He glanced around at the garden, quickly taking in the formal manicured lawns and the long square ponds. The bare trees and chill wind told him it was winter. Rose shivered, and he automatically shucked his jacket, offering it to her. “Thanks,” she murmured, slipping her arms through the sleeves.

“Well, it’s definitely the eighteenth century,” he said. “Late 1744 or early 1745. Aside from that… someplace with a very nice garden.” She laughed and squeezed his hand. Her affection seeped into him, and the warmth warred against his discomfort.

Voices drifting on the wind distracted him from this whole sharing feelings business. He held a finger to his lips and gestured for Rose and Mickey to follow him to a garden wall they could hide behind. The Doctor took position behind a tall stone urn with Rose beside him, peeking over his shoulder. Mickey grumbled and dropped onto the ground.

Two women strolled by. “Oh Catherine, you are too wicked,” one said.

“Oh, speaking of wicked, I hear Madame de Chateauroux is ill and close to death,” Catherine said.

“Yes, I am devastated.” Both women laughed.

“Indeed, I myself am frequently inconsolable.” Catherine peered up at her friend. “The king will therefore need a new mistress. You love the king of course.”

The Doctor missed her reply as several puzzle pieces fell into place. Madame de Chateauroux had been Louis XV’s mistress before Madame du Pompadour—also known to her friends as Reinette.

A peacock called out behind him, and he quickly ducked back behind the urn as Reinette looked over her shoulder. “Is something wrong, my dear?” Catherine asked.

“Not wrong, no.” The Doctor heard the note of hesitant curiosity in her voice. _She must have caught a glimpse of me. We’ll have to stay here until they are out of sight._

He tried to listen to the rest of the conversation, but sensing the danger, Rose scooted closer to him. Suddenly, every bit of his attention was focused on where the curve of her hip pressed into his side, and how he could feel the slight movement of her chest with every breath she took.

But when her breath caught and she stiffened slightly, he remembered their connection went both ways. If he could pick up on Rose’s sexual attraction toward him, of course she could sense his toward her.

Shoving his discomfort down with great effort, he refocused on Reinette and her friend, who were still talking. “You know of course that the King is to attend the Yew Tree Ball.”

“As am I.”

The Doctor waited a minute, then, satisfied that the coast was clear, he turned to his companions. “What are you doing on the ground, Mickey? Come on, let’s get back to the ship.”

Mickey grumbled and brushed dirt off himself, but the Doctor tuned him out. When the horse followed them back into the corridor, he thought about sending it back, but it seemed of paltry importance compared to what he’d just realised.

Rose handed him his jacket and one of the fire extinguishers and kept the other for herself. “Okay, Doctor, you’ve just figured something out. Out with it—who were those women? Where were we?”

“Versailles, and one of them was Reinette.”

Rose stopped in mid-stride. “The girl in the fireplace?”

“One and the same.” He started down the corridor. “Jean-Antoinette Poisson, known to her friends as Reinette. One of the most accomplished women to have ever lived.”

“From the way you say accomplished, it sounds like you mean more than just a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing, and the modern languages,” Rose said.

The Doctor chuckled at her literary allusion. “All that and more,” he confirmed. “In fact—”

He stopped talking when they turned a corner and spotted a two way mirror. “What do we have here?” he said quietly. An eighteenth century French drawing room, most likely at Versailles judging by the quality of the furnishings.

Mickey pressed his nose to the glass. “It’s France again. We can see France.” Louis XV walked into the room, dressed in formal attire, and Mickey chuckled. “Blimey, look at this guy. “Who does he think he is?”

“The king of France,” the Doctor answered matter-of-factly. The king dismissed his courtiers, and a moment later, Reinette entered the room. She circled the king, and even without being able to hear what she said he knew she was seducing him.

“I _think_ this is the night they met. The night of the Yew Tree Ball. In no time flat she’ll get herself established as his official mistress, with her own rooms at the palace, even her own title—Madame de Pompadour.”

There was a moment of silence while Rose and Mickey processed this. “So all these windows,” Rose said slowly, “they all open onto her life?”

“Yup. Time windows, deliberately arranged along the life of one particular woman. A spaceship from the fifty-first century stalking a woman from the eighteenth. Why?”

On the other side of the glass, the king left the room. Once alone, Reinette walked toward the mirror they hid behind and primped a little. “The queen must have loved her,” Rose murmured, and he was surprised to catch a hint of insecurity from her.

“Oh she did. They get on very well,” the Doctor said.

“The king’s wife and the king’s girlfriend,” Mickey said incredulously.

The Doctor shook his head. “France. It’s a different planet.”

Timelines shifted and he looked back through the mirror into France. Reinette was not alone in the room; one of the clockwork droids had found her again. “That’s not supposed to happen,” Rose said.

“No it’s not,” he answered and pushed on the mirror. It opened like a door, and armed, he walked through.

 


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Girl in the Fireplace rewrite, part 2/3

**Previously:**

On the other side of the glass, the king left the room. Once alone, Reinette walked toward the mirror they hid behind and primped a little. “The queen must have loved her,” Rose murmured, and he was surprised to catch a hint of insecurity from her.

“Oh she did. They get on very well,” the Doctor said.

“The king’s wife and the king’s girlfriend,” Mickey said incredulously.

The Doctor shook his head. “France. It’s a different planet.”

Timelines shifted and he looked back through the mirror into France. Reinette was not alone in the room; one of the clockwork droids had found her again. “That’s not supposed to happen,” Rose said.

“No it’s not,” he answered and pushed on the mirror. It opened like a door, and armed, he walked through.

**Chapter Nine**

Reinette turned in surprise. “Hello, Reinette,” he said, striding into the room. “Hasn’t time flown?”

“Fireplace man!”

The Doctor aimed the fire extinguisher at the droid, hoping to gain a few minutes. As before, the droid froze for a minute, and the Doctor tossed the weapon to Mickey.

An odd whirring sounds filled the room. “What’s it doing?” Mickey asked.

“Switching back on,” the Doctor told him. “Melting the ice.”

“And then what?”

“Then it kills everyone in the room,” the Doctor said bluntly, tired of Mickey’s inane questions. The droid melted enough of the ice to move one of his arms, and the Doctor dodged the blow. “Focuses the mind, doesn’t it?”

Reinette moaned in fear. The Doctor stepped out of the droid’s reach and glared at it. “Who are you? Identify yourself.”

The droid merely cocked its head to one side, and the Doctor sighed at the loss of the upper hand. “Order it to answer me,” he asked Reinette, hating the feeling of needing help.

She looked from him to the droid, and back to him. “Why should it listen to me?”

“I don’t know; it did when you were a child.” He cocked an eyebrow and said, “Let’s see if you’ve still got it.”

She nodded and drew herself up straight. “Answer his question. Answer any and all questions put to you.”

Mickey stood beside her, looking like a scared little boy despite the weapon he held in his hands. Rose stood on his other side, looking every inch the warrior despite the jeans and form-fitting t-shirt she wore. The droid stood in front of them all, and the Doctor focused his attention there. It slowly lowered its arm, and he drew in a breath.

_That worked better than I thought it would._

“I am repair droid seven,” it said.

“What happened to the ship?” the Doctor asked. “There was a lot of damage.”

“Ion storm. Eighty-two percent systems failure”

_But that makes no sense!_ “That ship hasn’t moved in over a year. What’s taking you so long?”

“We did not have the parts,” the droid replied.

On his left, Mickey chuckled. “Always comes down to that, doesn’t it? The parts.”

There was a deeper issue at hand though, one Rose had pinpointed almost as soon as they’d arrived on the ship. “What’s happened to the crew? Where are they?”

“We did not have the parts,” the droid repeated.

“There should have been over fifty people on your ship. Where did they go?”

“We did not have the parts,” the droid said for the third time, and the Doctor suspected it had gotten stuck in a rut, like an old-fashioned record.

“Fifty people don’t just disappear, where…” He felt Rose’s disgust at the same time as his own, and knew she’d caught on as well. “Oh. You didn’t have the parts, so you used the crew.”

“The crew?” Mickey repeated.

“The eye, and the heart,” Rose said.

“It was just doing what it was programmed to,” the Doctor explained. “Repairing the ship any way it can with whatever it could find. No one told it the crew weren’t on the menu.” Another piece of the puzzle fell into place. “What did you say the flight deck smelled of?”

“Someone cooking,” Rose said hoarsely.

“Flesh plus heat. Barbecue.”

Reinette drew in a shuddering breath. _Right. Time to change the subject._

“But what are you doing here?” he asked the droid. “You’ve opened up time windows; that takes colossal energy. Why come here, you could have… gone to your repair yard. Instead you’ve come to eighteenth century France. Why?”

“One more part is required.” The droid tilted its head with a mechanical click and stared straight at Reinette.

“Then why haven’t you taken it?” the Doctor asked, silently daring the droid to try.

“She is incomplete.”

Utter confusion washed over the Doctor, but this time it was his own, not Rose’s. “What, so that’s the plan then?” he said, the vague answers making him testy. “Just keep opening up more and more time windows, scanning her brain, checking to see if she’s done yet?” He was missing part of the equation, but he couldn’t figure out what it was.

“Why her?” Rose asked, as always grabbing onto the human element of the mystery. The Doctor, Mickey, and Reinette all looked at Rose. She tilted her head at the droid and then Reinette. “You’ve got all of history to choose from,” she pointed out. “Why specifically her?”

“We are the same.”

That was not the answer the Doctor had expected, and judging by the horror on Reinette’s face, it wasn’t one she would tolerate. “We’re not the same; we are in no sense the same,” she denied.

“We are the same,” the droid repeated.

“Get out of here. Get of here this instant,” Reinette demanded, and the Doctor saw his opportunity slipping away. The droids always obeyed Reinette, even when they would not acknowledge anyone else.

“Reinette, no,” he said, but even as he said it, the droid touched the teleport on its wrist and disappeared.

The Doctor ran back to the open mirror and held it open for Rose. “It’s back on the ship. Rose, take Mickey and Arthur. Get after it. Follow it. Don’t approach it, just watch what it does.”

She cocked an eyebrow. “Arthur?”

“Good name for a horse.”

She shook her head and rolled her eyes, and he could hear the unspoken question— _And who would take care of the horse, Doctor_? “No, you’re not keeping the horse.”

A debate over a pet was about ten steps too close to domesticity, and the Doctor shot her a cheeky grin. “We’ll discuss it later, dear,” he said. “Now, shift.” She gave him one more disapproving glare, then stepped through the mirror behind Mickey.

The Doctor swung it closed behind them before turning back to Reinette. The courtesan looked up at him, supremely confident. “Reinette, you’re going to have to trust me. I need to find out what they’re looking for and to do that, I need to look inside your mind. It won’t hurt a bit.” He remembered what he’d told Rose just a week ago. “If there’s anything you don’t want me to see, just imagine a door and close it. I won’t look.”

She nodded her assent, and he stepped forward and placed his hands on her temples. “Fireplace man, you are inside my mind,” she whispered.

The Doctor looked around him in dismay. Instead of the ordered chaos typical of a human mind, Reinette’s consciousness had been ransacked, like someone had come through looking for one very specific thing. “Oh dear, Reinette. You’ve had some cowboys in here.”

“You are in my memories. You walk among them.”

He ignored her shock as he sifted through the rubble, trying to ascertain what they’d been looking for. Memories of her childhood seeped in, and he drew a breath. “Oh, there’s a door just _there_ , you might want to close…”

More recent memories floated to the surface, and he fought against his own discomfort with the forced intimacy. Being connected to Rose was awkward but tolerable, since they were already close, but this… Another door opened. “Oh, I see several… I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” he said awkwardly. “Just… close the door…”

She sighed and stepped closer to him. “To walk among the memories of another living soul. Do you ever get used to this?” she asked, her voice low and seductive.

The Doctor cleared his throat and attempted to put a little distance between them. “I don’t make a habit of it,” he said curtly.

“How can you resist?” she purred.

The Doctor finally found what the droids had been looking for. “What age are you?”

Her voice lilted with flirtation. “So impertinent a question so early in the conversation! How promising.”

_This isn’t a game!_ With an effort, he tamped down his irritation. “Not my question, theirs. You’re twenty-three and for some reason, that means you’re not old enough.”

Something shifted in her mind, and he grimaced. “Sorry, you might find old memories reawakening. Side effect.”

Then he recognised the sensation for what it was—the subtle push of another mind against his own. “Ah ah, no peeky,” he mumbled. But Reinette did not back away, instead pushing harder at the locked door of his mind.

He pulled out of her mind and opened his eyes to find her looking up at him, a seductive pout on her face. “Should not a door once opened be stepped through in either direction, Fireplace Man?” she murmured.

“Blimey, and people call me rude!” He pinched the bridge of his nose and rocked back on his heels. “I’m not sure what you’re after here, just a peek at my mind or something… more, but whatever it is, I’m not interested.”

She drew back, a frown on her face. “You are a most unusual man.”

Before he could respond, he caught a sharp blast of fear from Rose. He dropped his barriers, and she sent him a quick picture of two clockwork droids, and her and Mickey strapped to tables. “No time for conversation, Reinette. I hope you’ll forgive me if I leave in a hurry. If the droids ever come back, just give a shout through the fireplace.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

As Rose walked with Mickey through the corridors of the ship looking for the droid, she tried to piece together the fragments of emotion she’d picked up from the Doctor a moment ago. Somehow, the argument over Arthur had triggered… _Oh. That was a very coupley fight, wasn’t it?_

“So, that Doctor, eh?” Mickey said, and the humour in his voice annoyed Rose.

“What are you talking about?” she asked.

“Well. Madame de Pompadour,” he said slyly. “Sarah Jane Smith.” Rose knew what he was getting at, but with her newfound confidence that the Doctor wanted her—and hadn’t her world shifted a bit when she’d realised that—she ignored him.

Undeterred, Mickey tried one more. “Cleopatra.”

“Cleopatra!” Rose stopped and glared at Mickey. “He mentioned her once.”

“Yeah, but he called her Cleo,” he tossed back over his shoulder.

Any cutting remark she might have made died on her lips when a droid stepped out of the shadows. “Mickey!” Rose raised her fire extinguisher as the droid grabbed her mate by the neck. Before she could fire it, another droid grabbed her from behind. The last thing she remembered was a prick on her neck.

When Rose woke up, she was strapped to a table. Ticking reverberated through the room, and she felt like she must be surrounded by a hundred of the droids. As the sedative wore off, she realised it was only a handful, but that was more than enough.

“What’s going on? Doctor!” She called out for him verbally first, and then remembered she had another way to get his attention.

“Rose? What are you doing, Rose?” Mickey yelled when she closed her eyes.

“Shut it, I’m trying to concentrate,” she ordered. Whatever they’d injected her with had left Rose with a fuzzy head, but with a little effort, she found her connection to the TARDIS, and through her, the Doctor. She dropped her shields and projected all her fear through their connection. She tried to include this image of her and Mickey strapped to examination tables while a droid watched over them both, but she had a feeling sharing actual thoughts wouldn’t work unless they were touching.

“They’re going to chop us up!” Mickey exclaimed. “Just like the crew. They’re going to chop us up and stick us all over this stupid spaceship. And where’s the Doctor? Where’s the precious Doctor now?” he squeaked. “He’s been gone for flippin’ hours, that’s where he is.”

“Don’t exaggerate Mickey, it hasn’t been that long,” Rose said offhandedly, not sure how she knew that, but knowing she was right. Mickey huffed, and Rose tamped down her frustration with him. _This was why I didn’t want you to come._

Cold anger poured over her connection with the Doctor, and Rose knew he’d gotten her message. _Maybe he won’t be quite so skittish about us having this now,_ she thought. _Could be dead useful being able communicate, even just with feelings._

A droid stepped forward and looked at her. “You are compatible,” it declared. She looked at it and even though the mask creeped her out, she knew she had to play for time.

“Well, you might want to think about that,” she said, full of bravado. “You really, really might, because me and Mickey, we didn’t come here alone—” She looked over at her mate, struggling against the straps holding him down. “Oh no, and trust me, you wouldn’t want to mess with our designated driver.”

The droid extended its arm toward her, and an attachment with a mini saw and several sharp instruments whirred beneath Rose’s nose. A rock settled in the pit of her stomach, but she kept her voice as even as possible. “Ever heard of the Daleks?” she asked, hating the breathless, fearful quality in her voice. “Remember them? They had a name for our friend. They had… myths about him, and a name. They called him the—”

Off-key singing interrupted her spiel, but she pressed on. “They called him… they called him the…”

The Doctor danced into the room with his tie around his forehead, singing “I Could Have Danced All Night.” It wasn’t what she had expected, but she could easily tell his intoxication was just an act, one she knew she had to play along with.

“Have you met the French?” he asked exuberantly. “My God, they know how to party!”

“Oh, look at what the cat dragged in, the Oncoming Storm,” Rose said, adding a layer of disgust to her voice. If this hadn’t been an act, if he’d actually waltzed in drunk while she and Mickey were in danger, she really would have had his head on a platter, so it wasn’t hard for her to pull up the emotion. Still, it was gratifying to see the Doctor take a step back from her, and she had to hide her smirk.

“Hmm, you sound just like your mother,” he gibed, and then her annoyance was genuine.

“What have you been doing? Where have you been?”

“Well,” he said, for once not stretching the word out into multiple syllables, “among other things, I _think_ I just invented the banana daiquiri a couple of centuries early. Do you know, they’d never even seen a banana before!”

She leaned her head against the table. _Bananas. Really?_ For a moment she forgot it was an act and let him feel exactly how upset she’d be if he didn’t rescue her in the next sixty seconds.

He staggered toward her and leaned on her table. “Always take a banana to a party, Rose,” he told her seriously, but then he tilted his head down so she could see his eyes behind the sunglasses he wore. They were filled with fury, not with her, but at her present condition. She’d felt the anger before, but seeing it somehow reassured her.

“Bananas are good,” he told Mickey over his shoulder, and then staggered back to the centre of the room.

“Oh, brilliant, it’s you!” he told the droids, as if he’d just noticed their presence. “You’re my favourite, you are, you’re the best! Do you know why?” he said, moving closer to the droid who still held a cutting implement against Rose’s chest. “Because you’re so thick! You’re Mr. Thick, Thick, Thickity Thick Face from Thicktown, Thickania—and so’s your dad!”

Rose shifted under the blade when he turned away. _Don’t leave me!_ she couldn’t resist pleading silently, and he turned back immediately. The response calmed her, and he wandered back toward the TARDIS.

“Do you know what they were scanning Reinette’s brain for? Her milometer. They wanna know how old she is. Know why? Because this ship is thirty-seven years old,” he said, twirling in a circle and gesturing vaguely around him, “and they think when Reinette is thirty-seven, she’s ‘complete,’ and her brain is going to be compatible.” He sauntered toward another one of the droids and got in its face. “Because that’s what you’re missing, isn’t it? The command circuit, your computer. Your ship needs a brain, and for some reason—God knows why—only the brain of Madame de Pompadour will do.”

Rose eyed the droid, wondering if this could possibly be accurate. “The brain is compatible,” it said.

“Compatible?” the Doctor repeated, and came back to stand behind the droid by Rose. “If you believe that, then you could use a glass of wine.”

She watched in amazement as he pulled the wig back and poured the contents of the glass over the gear head. The droid froze and then tipped over, out of service.

Rose heaved a sigh and flopped back against the table. “Multi-grade anti-oil,” the Doctor said. “If it moves, it doesn’t.” The rest of the droids closed in on him, and he leapt over to the command station, turning them all off.

“Right you two, that’s enough lying about,” he told Rose and Mickey, using the sonic to get them both off the tables.

He helped Rose up, and as she got her bearings, he said quietly, “Got here as soon as I could. I had to find the anti-oil first—showing up without a weapon wouldn’t have done much good.”

She smiled up at him, rubbing at the sore spots on her arms. “No worries, Doctor. All my parts are still attached; you were in time.”

“In time!” Mickey squawked. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Rose. Another few minutes and—”

Rose clenched her fists and then forced herself to relax. “Right, Mickey. Another few minutes. Which means he was in time.”

“Anyway,” the Doctor said, clearing his throat. “It’s time we got the rest of the ship turned off.”

“Are those things safe?” Mickey asked.

“Yep. Safe, safe and thick, the way I like them.”

The Doctor shoved the sunglasses back in his pocket and peered at the screens. “Okay, all the time windows are controlled from here. We need to close them all down.” He felt in his pockets for something. “Zeus plugs. Where are my Zeus plugs? I had them a minute ago; I was going to use them as castanets.”

Rose watched him dart around the flight deck, a question occurring to her. “Why didn’t they just open a time window to when she was thirty-seven?”

“With all the damage to these circuits, they did well to hit the right century,” the Doctor explained, running something along a circuit board. “It was trial and error after that.” He flicked a switch, then flicked it back. “The windows aren’t closing. Why won’t they close?”

Something like a timer dinged, and Rose looked at the Doctor. “What was that?”

“I don’t know,” he said, glancing around the room. “Incoming message?”

“From who?” Mickey asked.

“Report from the field. One of them must still be out there, with Reinette. That’s why I can’t close the windows; there’s an override.”

The droids on the flight deck all woke up suddenly. The one the Doctor had knocked out with anti-oil excreted it from its hand, letting the fluid run down its sleeve and onto the Doctor’s shoe.

“Well that was a bit clever,” the Doctor muttered. Then the rest of the droids straightened up, and he gulped. “All right. Many things about this are not good.” The sound chimed again, and he called out to them. “Message from one of your little friends, say anything interesting?”

“She is complete,” the head droid said. “It begins.” As one, they hit their teleports and disappeared.

The three of them looked around the now empty room. “What’s happening?” Rose asked.

“One of them must have found the right time window,” the Doctor answered. “Now it’s time to send in the troops. And this time, they’re bringing back her head.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I did cut the scene where Rose talks to Reinette. I actually wrote a version that reflected much better on both women, then I realised that if the droids closed the time windows as soon as they found the right one and teleported to Versailles, Rose should have been trapped there. You can maybe say there's a slight delay and it gave her enough time to get back... but I don't buy that. It's a detail that got missed, and that detail meant I could just skip the scene entirely.


	10. Chapter 10

**Previously:**

“She is complete,” the head droid said. “It begins.” As one, they hit their teleports and disappeared.

The three of them looked around the now empty room. “What’s happening?” Rose asked.

“One of them must have found the right time window,” the Doctor answered. “Now it’s time to send in the troops. And this time, they’re bringing back her head.”

**Chapter Ten**

Dizziness swept over Rose, and she grabbed at the computer console to stay upright. She didn’t know Reinette, but the thought of letting her die was painful. “Can you find the right window?” she asked. “We’ve gotta save her.”

The Doctor nodded, screwdriver already out and aimed at the console. “Now that I know what I’m looking for, it’ll be easy-peasy. Clockwork droids might not be able to find the right window on the first go, but I’m a Time Lord.”

For once, his arrogant declaration filled her with relief instead of aggravation. “Great, just hurry,” she said, putting a hand to her head as her vision started to grey out.

“Found it.” He adjusted the sonic’s screwdriver and Reinette’s voice filled the room. “Fireplace Man! I need you now; you promised.”

“Is that coming from the time window?” Rose asked. “Why can’t we see it?”

The Doctor’s posture went completely stiff, from his locked knees to the tight, corded muscles in his neck. He adjusted the sonic again, and a large window appeared on the wall in front of them. “Right in front of us the whole time,” Rose muttered.

On the other side of the window, a French masquerade ball had turned into a horrible parody of the real thing as clockwork droids marched through the guests, throwing them aside willy-nilly in their eagerness to reach Reinette.

Rose felt the frantic working of the Doctor’s mind as he looked for a solution. The more Reinette called for him, the worse he felt, and the dizzier Rose became.

“So let’s go through and save her.”

The Doctor shook his head, his lips pressed into a thin line. He ran around the terminals, waving his sonic frantically at various connection points. “They knew I was coming; they’ve blocked it off.”

_But the droids weren’t ever able to land that accurately before._ “I don’t get it; how come they got in there?” Rose asked.

“They teleported!” the Doctor said, using a spanner to fix connections on one of the terminals. “You saw them. As long as the ship  and the ballroom were linked, short range teleports will do the trick.”

“Oh, we’ll go in the TARDIS!” Rose suggested, feeling just as anxious as the Doctor.

“Can’t take the TARDIS, we’re part of events now!”

Rose raised an eyebrow, feeling like they’d used the TARDIS before to land them closer to where they needed to be, but it was his ship.

The Doctor shook his head, knowing exactly what Rose was thinking. There was a reason he couldn’t take the TARDIS; by the time he got the coordinates set, events would have progressed to their ultimate end on the other side of the window. Since the ship the TARDIS was on was linked to the ballroom via the windows, they wouldn’t be able to go back and fix it without crossing their own timelines.

He scanned the ship’s systems, hoping they would tell him something other than what he’d already figured out. The droids had teleported to Reinette, age thirty-seven, and then they’d cut the link between the ship and the windows. They would let him watch as they destroyed her, but they would not let him come to her rescue.

“Can’t we just smash through?” Mickey asked.

“Hyperplex this side, plate glass the other. You’d need a truck to get through that glass,” he told Mickey and ran to another part of the controls.

“We don’t have a truck.”

“I know we don’t have a truck!” The Doctor shoved his hands in his hair. Timelines were disintegrating around him. Reinette, Louis XV, France in the eighteenth century... everything was changing, and he didn’t have a way to keep it from happening.

“Well we’ve got to try something!” Rose exclaimed.

“No, smash the glass, smash the time windows—there’d be no way back.” No matter how uncomfortable it felt to be completely exposed to Rose, he still wouldn’t leave her. ~~~~

He tried using the sonic to reopen the windows, but nothing worked. In France, Reinette was using her considerable power to calm her court, but he knew she was only maintaining her own calm because she believed her childhood imaginary friend would come to save her once more.

Rose gasped in horror. “Doctor. They’ve got her on her knees. I think... I think they’re gonna behead her. They don’t need her feet, they said—just her brain.”

The shifted timeline grew stronger. The Doctor vaulted over the terminal and stared at the window, hopelessness clawing at his gut.

Rose slipped her hand into his. “Doctor, you’ve got to save her! It isn’t supposed to happen like this.”

He looked at Rose quickly, noticing for the first time that the queasiness in his mind wasn’t all his own. _Is she... sensing timelines?_

Whatever the answer, she was right. It couldn’t happen like this, but what could he do? In truth, there was only one answer, but he still rebelled against it.

“Going through the glass is the only way, yeah?”

He looked at the window and then back at her. “Yes,” he said, unable to lie.

“Stay here, I know what we need.” He watched in bemusement as she disappeared down a corridor, but when she returned a minute later with Arthur, he knew what her plan was.

“Rose, if I break the glass…”

Rose’s hair drifted around her face as she shook her head. “Doctor, I don’t know why, but I know she can’t die, not right here. It’s… there’s more that has to happen, yeah?”

He gulped. Definitely sensing timelines then. _No time for that now._ “Yeah. Well, not her... but yeah.”

“Then go.”

He took the reins and swung up on the horse. Mickey looked on in horror. “Rose, what are you doing? You’re gonna let him just leave us here?”

“Oh, and there’s Ricky the Idiot! You think I’d leave Rose stranded on a spaceship in the fifty-first century?”

He looked back at Rose. “I’ll find a way to get back. I promise.”

She smiled, but he could easily feel her discomfort over their connection. His concern for her was now equal to his concern for the woman in eighteenth century France, but he obeyed her wishes and kicked the horse into motion.

Arthur ran full steam, straight at the window. At the last second the Doctor ducked his head, protecting his face from the glass with his arms. A moment later, he felt the horse land and he looked up; they were in the ballroom. He couldn’t help a glance over his shoulder. The window was broken, like he knew it would be. Worse, he could tell immediately that his connection with Rose and the TARDIS was just as broken, separated as they now were by time and space.

Wheeling Arthur around, he focused on the droids and not the emptiness in his head. Reinette looked at him with stars in her eyes, and he smiled back at her. “Madame de Pompadour, you look younger every day.”

“What the hell is going on?” King Louis XV asked.

Reinette blinked. “Oh. This is my lover, the King of France.”

“Hello, Your Majesty,” he said, then stared at the droids. “I’m the Doctor, and I’m here to fix the clock.” He yanked the mask and wig off the nearest one.

The droid held out its sharp appendage, and the Doctor sneered at it. “Forget it, it’s over. For you and for me,” he said, looking again at the broken mirror. The emptiness in his mind ate at him. “Talk about seven years bad luck. Try three thousand.”

The droid looked too, and the Doctor saw the exact moment his clockwork brain worked out the consequences of what had happened. It hit its teleport over and over, trying to find the connection to the ship.

“The link with the ship is broken. There’s no way back.” He leaned closer and whispered in a mocking tone, “You don’t have the parts.”

The gears slowed, and the Doctor took all his anxiety over getting back to Rose out on it. “How many ticks left in that clockwork heart? A day? An hour? It’s over. Accept that. I’m not winding you up,” he said, finally delivering the pun he’d been dying to use.

The ticking slowed even further, and then the droid’s head drooped toward its chest. Around the room, the rest of the cadre also slowed and then tipped over, their gears stopping. A droid dressed in a vibrant purple coat fell backward, the impact with the ballroom floor causing his pieces to break and scatter around him.

The proper timeline snapped back into place. Reinette would stay with the King of France, who would not be killed by clockwork droids. His son would still be the ineffectual Louis XVI, whose reign would lead to the French Revolution.

“Are you all right?” the Doctor asked Reinette, helping her to her feet.

“What’s happened to them?” she asked, looking around the room at the now defunct droids.

“They’ve stopped. They have no purpose anymore.”

“I suppose you will be going,” Reinette said stiffly.

The Doctor looked over his shoulder at the broken mirror. “It won’t be as easy as just… getting back on the horse and riding back to where I came from,” he told her. “It may be hard to understand, but that mirror was my only doorway home.”

“In saving me, you trapped yourself,” she said slowly. “Did you know that would happen?”

He shrugged and swallowed hard. He wasn’t quite trapped. All he had to do was locate a version of himself who could take him back to his own timeline, but a quick scan of his memories told him it would be decades before he accidentally took Susan, Ian, and Barbara to the French Revolution.

He would be forced to take the slow path, the bane of a time traveler’s existence.

“And yet you came.”

“Yeah, I did. Catch me doing that again,” he muttered, all the while knowing that if timelines were in danger, he would never have a choice.

Judging by the look on her face, he hadn’t fooled her. “There were many doors between my world and yours,” she said. “Can’t you use one of the others?”

He shook his head. “When the mirror broke, the shock would have severed all the links with the—with my home,” he quickly corrected. “There will be a few more broken mirrors and torn tapestries around here, I’m afraid. Wherever there was a time window. Um, I’ll pay for any damage,” he offered.

_And how am I going to do that?_ The full ramifications of his long exile on Earth struck him. “Ah, that’s a thought—I’m going to need money! I’ve always been sort of vague about money. Where do you get money?” he asked, feeling lost.

She laughed, and then an edge of calculation entered her eyes. A moment later, she grabbed his hand and pulled him down another corridor. “It’s a pity,” she said as they passed gaping courtiers, “I think I would have enjoyed showing you how we mere mortals live.”

“I’m not going anywhere.” _At least not before you’re long dead._

She pushed open a door and he nearly tripped when he realised it was her bedroom. “Oh, aren’t you?” she cooed, pointing, and he choked before he realised she wasn’t pointing to the bed, but to the fireplace.

“It’s not a copy,” she told him. “It’s the original. I had it moved here, and was exact in every detail.”

The unspoken meaning hung in the air. She’d trusted, all these years, that he would return at the end to save her from the droids.

“The fireplace!” he said, striding toward it, his steps getting quicker as he felt himself being pulled back to Rose. “The fireplace from your bedroom.”

“It appears undamaged,” she said, coming up to stand behind him. “Do you think it will still work?”

The Doctor stared at the fireplace, not quite able to believe he was so close to home, to the TARDIS and Rose. “You broke the bond with the ship when you moved it. Which means, it was offline when the mirror broke. That’s what saved it,” he told her, and then his mind caught up with what he was saying.

“But!” He stepped toward it, almost afraid to hope. “The link is basically physical, and it’s still physically here.” He ran his hand over the mantle. “Which might just mean, if I’m lucky,” he rapped on it a few times, “if I’m very, very, very, very lucky…”

In the same place he’d noted the faulty connection before, the knock revealed a hollow sound. Exultation swept over him. “Hah!” he exclaimed, looking at Reinette and pulling out his sonic.

“What?” she asked.

“Loose connection!” he crowed, pointing the sonic at it. “Need to get a man in,” he added, pounding on top of the mantle to hopefully jar the wiring back into place. The mechanism hummed as it turned back on.

“Will I ever see you again, Doctor?” Reinette asked.

“I expect not,” he said honestly.

“Then I shall say goodbye, and thank you for saving my life so many times.”

“Reinette, it was my pleasure,” he said sincerely. “Wish me luck.” He pulled the lever and the fireplace turned around.

As soon as he returned to the fifty-first century, the TARDIS bombarded him with a mental Howler, accusing him of abandoning Rose—Mickey too, though she seemed less fussed about that. _Whoa! I always planned to come back._

She pointed out the fast return button, the one he’d never gotten around to showing Rose. Then she showed him a picture of Rose piloting the ship, and bluntly suggested she preferred the human girl’s style to his own.

The Doctor ignored the insult, and the hint that he ought to teach Rose more about the ship. With all the jumping between timelines, he couldn’t tell how long he’d been gone, but from the way the TARDIS was going on, it must have been a while. Strangely though, he didn’t feel any anxiety from Rose.

“Rose!” He ran toward the flight deck, hoping she’d be there. “Rose!”

“Back by the TARDIS, Doctor!” she yelled back.

He had her in his arms a moment later. “How long did you wait?” he asked, trying to hold back his frantic concern as much as possible.

“Five and a half hours.”

He couldn’t help feeling a shot of remorse that he knew she picked up on—five and a half hours wasn’t long in the grand scheme of the universe, but it was long enough to foster doubt. But all he sensed from Rose was trust.

He pulled back from the hug, a manic grin in place to hide what he was thinking. “Right. Always wait five and a half hours,” he said, cringing even as the words came out of his mouth.

“Where’s Mr. Mickey?” he rushed on.

Rose opened the TARDIS door. “Pouting somewhere. He didn’t think you’d find a way back, wanted to me to fly the TARDIS home.” Her disdain told him exactly what she’d thought of that idea.

The Doctor shrugged off his coat and tossed it over a pillar. “You could have, you know,” he said, striving for a nonchalance he didn’t feel. “The TARDIS loves you; she’d have helped you get home.”

Rose scoffed. “What, and leave you stranded in France, or on a spaceship drifting in the fifty-first century? Not gonna happen Doctor. I’m  never gonna leave you. Besides, I knew you’d get back somehow.”

A million arguments rose to the Doctor’s mind; she couldn’t continue to just believe in him like that, he’d let her down one day and she wouldn’t be prepared. But when he opened his mouth to tell her that, the smile on her face stole his words. “Well, it all worked out in the end,” he said, somewhat lamely. “I’m going to take us into the Vortex, then I think we’ll drift for a bit. Why don’t you go make some tea?”

Rose glanced over her shoulder at the Doctor as she left the control room. The pinched look around his eyes matched the tension she sensed from him, and she got the distinct feeling that he’d suggested tea to get her out of the room.

She shook the feeling off with a laugh. Tea after an adventure was their routine—save the world, have a cuppa. Besides, the way he’d just hugged her wasn’t usually how he acted when he was about to turn broody on her.

In the galley, Rose filled the kettle with fresh water and turned it on, her body performing the familiar tasks while her mind strayed back to the ship, but not to France and Reinette. _I’ve never gotten dizzy like that before_. The kettle boiled and she absently warmed the pot and then poured water over the tea.

Her fingers tapped an uneven rhythm on the worktop, her mind going over her moments of dizziness. She knew why it had happened—the fact that events were happening that shouldn’t had been as clear as day to her. What she didn’t understand was _how._

Rose pulled two mugs out of the cabinet, then grabbed a third for Mickey as an afterthought. He still hadn’t come out of wherever he’d retreated to, even though he could surely tell the TARDIS had dematerialised.

Into one cup went one sugar and lots of milk. In the other went a splash of milk and four sugars. She poured the tea and took both cups with her back to the control room.

The corridor lights behind her flashed, and Rose glanced over her shoulder. _That way?_ she asked the ship, and the lights flashed again in an affirmative. She followed the ship’s guidance until she stood in front of the study door. She carefully manoeuvred the cups until she held them both in one hand, then put the other on the doorknob.

Before she could get it open, she caught the faintest hint of emotion from the Doctor—fear maybe? Claustrophobia?

The lights flashed again, encouraging her to enter the room, but she hesitated, focusing instead on the Doctor. Suddenly she realised the ship was muting his emotions. What she’d gotten as a faint hint was actually an overpowering need to be alone.

She turned back the way she’d come. _What were you up to?_ If ships could pout, the TARDIS was doing so now. _I’m not gonna push him,_ she insisted. _When he wants to talk, then…_

Then she remembered all the questions she’d wanted to ask. Why had she gotten dizzy? She knew the Doctor had cottoned on to that; why wouldn’t he explain?

She shoved the hurt down. Maybe he didn’t know how to explain it to her. Back in the kitchen she dumped his tea into the sink and poured one for Mickey instead. It wasn’t hard to guess where he was; she heard the noise of the telly coming from the media room.

“Hey,” she said, holding out his cup.

He didn’t take it, or even look her in the eye. “So the Doctor finally turned up then?”

“Yeah, I told you he wouldn’t abandon us.”

Mickey glared at her. “How can you know that, Rose? How can you trust him like that?”

“Because I know him, Mickey,” she retorted. “I’ve traveled with him for two years now, and he’s never left me behind.”

“No, but he sent you home once. Alone. And he went to France. Alone. Don’t you see, babe? He’s always gonna think he can handle everything by himself.”

“And it’s my job to remind him that he can’t,” she retorted. “Now, are you gonna drink your tea, or should I just leave?”

Mickey turned back to the telly and crossed his arms across his chest. Rose stared at him in disbelief; she knew his anger stemmed from resentment that she’d chosen the Doctor over him, and she suddenly felt a twinge of remorse. Not for choosing the life she had, but for leaving Mickey the way she had. They had officially broken up during the long Christmas holiday, but apparently there was still some anger.

She set the tea down on the table and sat down on the other end of the sofa. “Hey. Micks.” A beat passed, and he finally looked at her.

“He left us, Rose. He sent us back to the ship by ourselves and we got knocked out by those droids, and then he let us sit on those tables about to be cut up while he was doing whatever with some high and mighty French mistress. Why can’t you see that you can’t count on him?”

The words struck Rose, but not in the way Mickey intended. Ever since Rome and her stint as a statue of the goddess Fortuna, he’d been eager to blame the Doctor for everything that went wrong. Rose knew the Doctor would always do everything in his power to keep her safe, but… Her mind drifted back to the closed door and the distance it represented.

_You sure this isn’t going to drive him away?_ she asked the TARDIS, only feeling a little reassured by the ship’s confidence.

Before her fear showed up on her face (or worse, before the Doctor could pick up on it) Rose shoved it into the recesses of her mind. “He didn’t send us away, Mickey. We split up to cover more ground, and you and I got captured. That happens sometimes. No normal days with the Doctor, remember?”

“Yeah, but…”

“No, Mickey. M’not gonna let you tell me all the reasons I should be angry that he did his job. ‘Cause going around, risking his life to save people? That’s what he does. It’s what _we_ do—and I love it.”

Rose stood up, suddenly weary of being caught between the two angsting men. “Drink your tea before it gets cold.”

Mickey caught her arm as she walked by. “Hey, I’m sorry, Rose. Don’t leave—it’s not so fun to be alone in here.”

There was true apology in his face. “No more jabs at the Doctor?”

“Promise.”

She sat back down next to him. “Okay then, Mickey, let me introduce you to the wonders of intergalactic cable.”

 


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a short half page from the TARDIS' POV, answering how they got into Pete's World in the first place. The next full chapter will be up on Tuesday as usual.

In the sky above London, a strange orb broke through the Earth’s atmosphere. The only building in the vicinity happened to house the secretive Torchwood Institute, which immediately took possession of the ship.

As Torchwood began their tests, the ramifications of this event rippled through the multiverse. Tiny cracks in the walls between the worlds began to appear, and in the Vortex, the TARDIS saw what that meant. A year into the future was hardly a drop in the bucket for the ancient ship, and she could easily see two kinds of metal creatures bent on destroying the planet her human called home.

She saw her Time Lord trying to save them all, and she knew he would fail without help. The TARDIS scanned the universes for the perfect partners, and when she found them, she pushed herself through a crack to get to them.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

For a week after France, Rose hardly saw hide nor hair of the Doctor. There were dishes in the dish rack so she knew he was eating, and occasionally she caught sight of his legs sticking out from underneath the console.

She ignored the TARDIS’ attempts to help her find the Doctor. If he wanted to talk, he would stop hiding. It was harder to ignore Mickey’s comments, which grew more pointed and satisfied by the day.

Finally on the fifth morning over breakfast, Mickey leaned back in his chair, a grin on his face. “I guess you’re right, Rose. The Doctor won’t just leave you. I mean, he’s been here so much recently I’ve hardly gotten a chance to talk to you.”

Rose glared at him. “Mickey, there’s stuff you can’t even understand. The Doctor an’ me…” She stopped, not wanting to tell Mickey exactly why the Doctor had made himself scarce.

 _And be honest, you’re not exactly pleased with him either,_ she admitted to herself. She still had questions she wanted to ask, and she couldn’t very well do that if he refused to stay in the same room with her.

“No, go on Rose,” Mickey urged. “I’d love to hear your excuse for this. Because I mean, to me it looks like he’s trying to avoid you, but clearly there’s something I don’t know.”

Rose stood up so quickly her chair would have tipped backwards if Mickey hadn’t caught it. “You know what, Mickey?” she said as she dropped her dishes in the sink. “I think I’d like the day to myself. You know where the media room is, and it’s not like watching football isn’t more important to you than I am anyway.”

He tried to protest, but she held a hand up. “No, I don’t wanna hear it. I’ve been listening to you for days, and I’m done. I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”

It was only after she left that she realised she didn’t actually have any plans on how to spend the day. The TARDIS highlighted the strange moments of dizziness when they were helping Reinette, and she knew what the ship wanted her to do.

_Right. If I just ask about this and pretend he hasn’t been ignoring me for a week, he can’t say I’m being nosy or invasive. After all, this is about me, right?_

She straightened her shoulders and turned toward the console room, finally determined to talk to him—whether he wanted to see her or not. Making the decision proved to be easier than locating him though. She wasn’t surprised when he wasn’t in the console room or the library, or even his study. But when she started following the corridors and opening every door she came to and she still didn’t find him, she wondered if he was somehow actively avoiding her.

 _Right Rose, and how would he be doing that?_ she scoffed. _He can sense your emotions, he doesn’t have a radar setting on the sonic that tells him where you are._ The idea of being able to punch “The Doctor” into her sat nav amused her and relieved some of her frustration.

Still, this obviously wasn’t the day she’d be able to talk to him. At 10:00, she gave it up as a bad job, ate a late supper, and turned in—resolving to try again the next day.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The Doctor drew a breath when he finally sensed Rose go to sleep just before 1:00 in the morning. He wasn’t proud of the lengths he’d gone to today to avoid her—tracking someone’s biodata was usually used to find them, not to stay away from them. But he’d picked up on her determination that morning and, well, he’d panicked. What if she wanted to talk about their relationship?

Humans were so amazing in the way they just grabbed onto life and accepted the pain along with the beauty. When you only lived for a handful of decades, you didn’t have much choice but to make the most of every moment. He knew what Rose would say in response to his reasoning for them not to be together, if he gave her a chance. _Doctor, shouldn’t we take the opportunity to be happy now while we can?_

But Rose wouldn’t have to watch him die. Rose wouldn’t have to face centuries with only the memory of him to carry her through. He knew he wouldn’t be able to do it, but he didn’t know if he could make her understand. Better to just stay away for a bit, until things settled down.

However, a full day of darting around the TARDIS and never setting foot in the galley had left him hungry, and now that Rose was in bed, he could safely get something to eat. But when he pushed the door open, Mickey was sitting at the table, his arms folded across his chest. “I’ve been waiting for you,” he said.

The Doctor gulped. “Have you? I’ve been thinking of all the places we could go next. Let’s go get Rose and see what she wants to do.”

He half-turned back toward the door, but Mickey’s voice stopped him. “I’m not going anywhere until you and I have a little talk.”

“Talk, Mickey? That’s all I ever do.”

“You talk, and you leave.” The Doctor opened his mouth to argue, but Mickey held his hand up. “I’m not talking about the spaceship. I know Rose told you to go, and believe me, I’ve had words with her on that.”

The Doctor had a sinking feeling that this was exactly the kind of conversation he’d tried so hard to avoid. “I’m talking about emotionally,” Mickey continued. “You just… check out when it gets to be too much.”

“Oi! I don’t either!”

Mickey raised an eyebrow. “Then explain Sarah Jane. I heard that conversation, Doctor—you didn’t argue when she said you could have come back. So why didn’t you?”

The Doctor leaned against the cabinets and glared balefully at Mickey. “I don’t need to explain myself to you.”

Mickey snorted. “You didn’t even have the courage to tell her to her face that you wanted her to go. You just waited for an excuse to dump her. That call back to Gallifrey sure was convenient, wasn’t it?”

Anger boiled up inside the Doctor. “Blimey, you really were eavesdropping, weren’t you?”

“I wanted to make sure you weren’t planning to do the same thing to Rose,” Mickey countered. “And you know what? I’m not exactly reassured.”

All his anger drained away. “I’m not going to abandon Rose,” he muttered.

“You don’t get it,” Mickey said. “You already have. Oh, you’re here, but you haven’t talked to her all week.”

The all too familiar feeling of shame welled up inside the Doctor. Mickey didn’t know the worst of it. He thought back to his actions that day, and bile rose in his throat.

“Things between Rose and I are complicated,” he countered, trying to regain the upper hand in the conversation.

Mickey raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, that’s what she said this morning.”

The Doctor’s stomach churned; after the way he’d been treating her, Rose had still defended him. That was…

“Look, I don’t know what friendship means for Time Lords,” Mickey said when the Doctor kept quiet, “but for humans, it means we don’t leave the other person to make excuses for us all the time. Rose deserves better. And if you don’t want me to convince her of that, you’d better start talking to her again.”

The fear of losing Rose stole the Doctor’s ability to speak, and he watched mutely as Mickey walked out of the galley.

The next morning the Doctor skipped breakfast and went to the console room and started tinkering. He knew Mickey probably wouldn’t see this as progress, but just being present where Rose could find him made him nervous enough. At least if he was under the console, he wasn’t quite as exposed.

The TARDIS wasn’t taken in by his paltry attempt to hide from both of his companions, and she sent a jolt of electricity into his hand. His spanner clattered to the grating and the Doctor cursed in every language he knew, plus a few he made up on the fly. “What’d you do that for?” he growled at the TARDIS.

She forcefully reminded him of the two things he was trying to forget: Rose’s apparent ability to sense timelines and her death on the Game Station. The point was clear— _you need to tell her._

The Doctor snorted. “Right, and how do I open that conversation? ‘Rose, do you remember when you opened up the TARDIS and saved my life? Well, guess what? It killed you.’ I’m sure that would go over well.”

The ship rocked violently and the Doctor fell to the floor. “Would you stop that?” he demanded as he stood back up. “Besides, why are you forcing the conversation anyway?”

This time, there was a distinct feeling that she was rolling her eyes at him.

Before he could question the ship on that, Rose herself jogged into the console room, Mickey on her heels. “What’s going on?” she asked, stroking a piece of the TARDIS. “Why’s she pitching about like that?”

The Doctor rubbed at the back of his neck. “Just having a bit of disagreement on where we should go, her and I,” he said.

Before anyone could reply, the Time Rotor exploded in a shower of sparks and the TARDIS started a free fall out of the Vortex, knocking him down. He pulled himself to his feet and stared at the readings on the monitor, unable to believe what he saw.

Rose joined him, differences momentarily forgotten in concern for the TARDIS. “What happened?” she asked.

“The Time Vortex, it’s gone. That’s impossible, it’s just gone!” The most immediate meaning of this struck him, and he said, “Brace yourself! We’re going to crash!”

Tucking Rose under one arm, he grabbed onto the railing with the other hand. Their free fall ended in a hard thud that knocked him and Rose to the grating and sent several bits of the TARDIS flying through the air. “You all right?” he asked Rose, running his hands down her arms and checking for any visible injuries.

She nodded. “Mickey!” he called out.

“I’m fine, I’m all right! Sorry… yeah.”

 _No one hurt, good. No one but…_ He rose to his feet unsteadily and looked at the smoke up out of the dark console. “She’s dead. The TARDIS is dead.”

“Is that why…” Rose asked, and he glanced over to see her pointing at her head.

The Doctor blinked. He could still feel Rose’s telepathic signature at the edge of his awareness, but that was it. The pain from losing the TARDIS—that was all his. “Yeah, no TARDIS, no connection,” he said quietly, and he relaxed in Rose’s presence for the first time in days _._

“You can fix it,” Rose suggested, fear not quite hidden in her voice.

“There’s nothing to fix. She’s perished.” He flicked a few switches on the console and got no response, not even the faintest hum in his mind. “The last TARDIS in the universe, extinct.”

He dodged a part dangling from the ceiling. Grief tried to claim him and pull him down as those words came out of his mouth. The last TARDIS, the only other survivor from Gallifrey. His closest companion for almost 1000 years, the one who knew him best…

“We can get help, yeah?” Rose asked, this time not hiding the fear at all.

“Where from?” he asked.

Rose looked at the console and back at him. “Well, we’ve landed. We’ve got to be somewhere.”

Behind them, Mickey moved toward the door, but the Doctor focused on Rose. “We fell out of the Vortex, through the Void, into nothingness.” He swallowed hard, realising this meant he had no way to take her home. “We’re in some sort of no place… the silent realm… the lost dimension.”

“Otherwise known as London,” Mickey called from the door, laughter in his voice.

The Doctor straightened up and looked at the light streaming in through the open door. Rose followed, and after grabbing his coat, he exited the TARDIS.

Mickey led the way outside and bounced lightly on the grass. “London, England, Earth,” he said, jubilation in his voice.

 _There’s still something not right,_ the Doctor thought, sticking his tongue out slightly and tasting the air. It looked like London, but didn’t taste like it. _Doesn’t sound like it either,_ he thought, taking in the constant mechanical hum.

“Hold on,” Mickey said, picking up a newspaper from a park bench. “First of February this year, not exactly far-flung, is it?”

The Doctor stared across the Thames. He’d found the source of the humming. “So this is London,” he said when Mickey finished showing off.

“Yup.”

“Your city,” he continued, turning in a circle. They’d crashed in front of what looked like Lambeth Palace. _Gingerbread house._

“That’s the one.”

“Just as we left it.”

“Bang on.”

“And that includes the zeppelins?” the Doctor asked, looking up at the sky.

Finally, Rose and Mickey truly looked around them. Across the river, the Palace of Westminster dominated the skyline, just like it did at home. But whereas in their universe, the airspace above it was clear of all craft, in this London, zeppelin traffic crisscrossed over the city.

“What the hell?” Mickey muttered, lowering the paper in shock.

“It’s beautiful,” Rose breathed, and for once her ability to see the positive in every situation did not make the Doctor smile.

“Okay,” Mickey said, trying to regain his composure, “so it’s London with the big international zeppelin festival.”

The Doctor didn’t even dignify that with a reply. “This is not your world.”

“But if the date’s the same… It’s parallel, right?” Mickey said, excitement in his voice. “Am I right? Like a parallel Earth where they’ve got zeppelins. Am I right? I’m right, aren’t I?”

“Must be,” the Doctor said, but he felt no excitement. Unlike his companions, he knew exactly what a parallel world meant. This was why the TARDIS was dead. It was the Time Vortex at her heart that allowed her to travel anywhere in space and time. On the other side of the void, she couldn’t reach the Vortex. No Vortex, no life… and no getting home.

Rose stepped out in front of them. “A parallel world where—”

“Oh, come on,” Mickey interrupted. “You’ve seen it on films. Like an alternative to our world where everything the same but a little bit different, like, I don’t know, traffic lights are blue, Tony Blair never got elected.”

Rose took another step forward, and the Doctor detected a faint tremor in her body. “And he’s still alive,” she said, staring at an advertisement right in front of them.

The Doctor’s hearts dropped even farther when he recognised the man promoting a health drink: Pete Tyler, the man who meant so much to Rose she’d been willing to break the laws of time just to save his life.

“A parallel world where my dad’s still alive.”

She walked quickly toward the billboard, and the Doctor followed her. He automatically reached for their connection, looking for any clue as to what she was thinking, and huffed in annoyance when he remembered it was gone.

But still, two years of learning all her nonverbal cues hadn’t been forgotten. The hope in her eyes startled a different emotion from him—fear. “Don’t look at it Rose,” he instructed, speaking quickly. “Don’t even think about it. This is not your world.”

“It’s my dad,” she murmured, and he heard the same lost girl looking for her daddy that had convinced him to take her back to see him the first time. But this time, he would be stronger. He wouldn’t give in to that voice.

Rose reached out for the advert, and it came to life. “Trust me on this,” Pete Tyler said.

Rose recoiled a little. “Well that’s weird,” she muttered. “But he’s real,” she added with a smile. “He’s a success! He was always planning these daft little schemes, health food drinks and stuff. Everyone said they were useless. But he did it.”

The Doctor put himself between Rose and the advertisement, his hands on her arms. “Rose if you’ve ever trusted me, then listen to me now.”

She glanced at it again, and he wished she could feel exactly how serious this was. _Of course the moment that connection could actually be useful, we lose it_.

He shook her just enough to get her attention. “Stop looking at it! Your father’s dead. He died when you were six months old. That is not your Pete. That is _a_ Pete. For all we know, he’s got his own Jackie, his own Rose.” Mickey huffed in annoyance, but the Doctor ignored him. This was not a time for gentleness. “His own daughter who is someone else, but not you. You can’t see him. Not ever.”

She half nodded, but the set of her jaw told a different story. Mickey pulled her into a hug and she buried her head into his chest. Over the top of her head, the other man glared at him, but the Doctor refused to be swayed. If they stayed, if they met Pete… Timelines shimmered in and out of view, like mirages in the desert. It couldn’t happen. He couldn’t lose her, not like this.

“Keep an eye on her,” he mouthed and Mickey nodded.

The Doctor spun on his heel, retreating back into the TARDIS. With danger lurking just beyond what he could see, it was down to him to get them off this planet at the very least. _The TARDIS is dead, but maybe there’s something he could do._

The smoke had cleared, but the Time Rotor was still dark. He stared at it anyway, hoping the solution would just jump out at him. Behind him, the door opened and closed, and he turned around to see not Rose, as he’d hoped, but Mickey.

“I told you to keep an eye on her!”

Mickey shrugged. “She’s all right.”

But the shimmering timelines were becoming clearer. The longer Rose was alone here, the stronger the possibility that he would lose her. “If she goes wandering off—parallel world, it’s like a gingerbread house!” he said, pointing at the door. “All those temptations, calling her.”

Anger flared in Mickey’s eyes. “Oh, so it’s just Rose then—nothing out there to tempt me.”

“Well I don’t know,” the Doctor retorted. “I can’t worry about everything.” He glared at the console. “If I could just get this thing to work,” he said, kicking at it. He regretted it immediately, not just because of the sharp pain in his foot, but because the lack of reaction from the TARDIS was just one more reminder that his ship was dead.

“Does that help?” Mickey asked.

“Yes.”

“Does it hurt?”

“Yes,” he admitted, sitting down and rubbing at his sore toe. 

Mickey fiddled with a few dials on the console. “So what’s so wrong with us being in a parallel world anyway?”

The unnatural stillness of the TARDIS drained the Doctor’s energy and anger, and he sagged back against the coral strut. “We’re not meant to be here,” he explained. “The TARDIS takes its power from the universe, but it’s the wrong universe. It’s like diesel in a petrol engine.”

Gear head that he was, Mickey understood that analogy instantly, and he sat down beside the Doctor. “But I’ve seen it in comics,” he protested. “People are hopping from one alternative world to another, it’s easy!”

The Doctor crossed his arms. _If I had 5p for every time someone argued with me based on something they’d read in books or seen on the telly…_ “Not in the real world.”

Honesty forced him to continue. “Used to be easy,” he admitted, tipping his head back as he remembered what it had been like before the Time War. “When the Time Lords kept their eye on everything, you could pop between realities, home in time for tea. Then they died and took it all with them.” Would Rose be one more casualty of that moment when he’d ended it all?

He shoved the guilt away. “The walls of reality closed,” he explained to Mickey. “The worlds were sealed. Everything became that bit less kind.”

“Then how did we get here?” Mickey asked, finally voicing the question of the day.

The Doctor rubbed at his eyes, weariness setting in. “I don’t know. Accident? Should have been impossible; now we’re trapped.”

They sat side by side for another moment, just two men a long way from home. Then something under the grating caught the Doctor’s eye—something that looked like a light glowing far down in the TARDIS’s inner workings.

“What’s that?” he asked and got to his feet. He tried to clamp down tight on the hope threatening to bubble over, but when he looked around, he couldn’t see anywhere the light could be reflecting from.

“What?” Mickey asked.

“That, there. Is that a reflection?” He looked around again and still saw nothing. “It’s a light!” He got down on the floor and yanked the grating up. “Is it? Is that a light?”

Hope soared through him. Light meant life. “I think that’s a light! That’s what we need. We’ve got power. Mickey, we’ve got power!” he exclaimed, bending back down on the floor and reaching his hand toward the working power cell.

 _Too far to reach from here._ He lowered himself under the deck and started pulling bits and bobs out. “It’s alive!” he said again, unable to believe it. The TARDIS wasn’t dead after all. They weren’t stuck. He could get Rose home, and she wouldn’t be trapped in a parallel universe.

“What is it?” Mickey asked.

“Nothing. It’s tiny. One of those insignificant little power cells that no one ever bothers about, and it’s clinging onto life, with one little ounce of reality tucked away inside.” He tossed hoses over his shoulder and gently pulled the power cell up. It pulsed slightly when he touched it, and he felt the faintest hum of the TARDIS in his mind.

“Is it enough to get us home?” Mickey asked.

“Not yet,” the Doctor said, cupping it in his hands. “I need to charge it up.”

“We could go outside and lash it onto the national grid,” Mickey suggested eagerly.

“Wrong sort of energy,” the Doctor answered. “Gotta come from our universe.”

“But we don’t have anything,” Mickey pointed out, his brow furrowed with worry.

The Doctor looked up at him. “There’s me,” he answered, and blew on the power cell. He felt lightheaded for a moment as energy drained out of his body, and then the TARDIS cell glowed brighter and he grinned manically. “I just gave away ten years of my life. Worth every second!”

Mickey crouched down and looked at it. “It’s going out, is that okay?”

“It’s on a recharging cycle,” the Doctor told him. “It’ll loop round, power back up, and be ready to take us home in—ooh, twenty four hours?” Unable to help himself, he kissed the bit of TARDIS in his glee. He could get them out of here; he could save Rose from whatever danger was hiding in this parallel universe.

“So that gives us twenty four hours in a parallel world,” Mickey pointed out.

“Shore leave!” the Doctor declared, suddenly feeling that all was right with the (parallel) world, as long as they had a way to leave. “As long as we keep our heads down. Easy. No problem. Let’s go tell her.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Alone on the street, Rose wandered along the river for a ways before dizziness forced her to sit down on a park bench. She rubbed at her head, trying to stave off the headache that had been building from the moment the TARDIS had landed them here. Her head seemed full of noise and thoughts that didn’t belong to her, and she couldn’t tune it out.

If this was what telepathic development was like without a TARDIS making it easier, Rose was even more grateful for the time ship’s interference. 

Seeing her dad’s face certainly hadn’t helped her headache. She groaned and leaned forward, resting her head in her hands. The look on the Doctor’s face when he told her—insisted—that it wasn’t her dad… He had looked honestly afraid, and that was the only reason she’d agreed not to look for this world’s Pete Tyler.

The fact that she’d had to rely on nonverbal cues to determine what he was feeling had her almost more off balance than being in a parallel universe. It seemed to make the Doctor feel better though—as soon as he’d realised their connection was broken, his shoulders had relaxed.  _Maybe this’ll give him the distance he wanted, and then when we get home, he’ll be willing to talk to me._

Rose refused to believe they would be stuck in this parallel world indefinitely. She and the Doctor had gotten out of tighter spots than this before. His definition of impossible seemed a little broader than the dictionary’s.

She straightened back up and looked into the sky, filled with zeppelins. Despite everything else, she couldn’t help but love the idea of an adventure in a place so familiar and yet not quite home. However she couldn’t forget the last time she’d disobeyed the Doctor and seen her father. Watching the Reapers devour her first Doctor… Rose shivered. If it was truly important to stay put, she would.

Her phone beeped and she pulled it out of her pocket, surprised to find it was being updated with the latest local software. She opened it up and listened to the news report about some local billionaire coming back to London, an idea building in the back of her mind during the whole thing.

Rose nibbled on her lower lip and looked back up at the zeppelin looming overhead. She knew what the Doctor would say, but he wasn’t here right now and what he didn’t know… She punched the query into the search bar on the browser. _Let’s see what I can learn about this world’s Peter Tyler…_

The world swirled around her, and Rose was dead grateful she was sitting down. She pressed her back into the bench, pushing down the nausea. It was the same kind of dizziness she’d experienced when the clockwork droids had tried to kill Reinette. She’d wanted to ask the Doctor about it last night, but his disappearing act had made that impossible.

The beeping of her phone distracted her from the rising feeling of resentment. She glanced down and selected the first hit: Vitex Corporation’s official biography of Peter Tyler, founder and president. _Humble London beginnings, entrepreneur, struggling businessman, then he launched Vitex…_

It was the personal information Rose really wanted to know though, and she scrolled past the company’s history until she saw a face as familiar to her as her own. Jackie Tyler stared back at her from her phone, with a date of birth and a wedding date.

_Still married Mum, what about me?_

But that was the end of the personal information. She stared at the phone. No kids. He was still alive, but she wasn’t. She’d thought maybe that this was the world where everything went right, but what if right meant she didn’t exist?

“There you are!” a familiar voice chirped off to her right, and she looked over to see the Doctor and Mickey walking toward her. “You all right? No applause, I fixed it!” The Doctor pulled something from his coat pocket and held it up. “Twenty four hours and we’re flying back to reality.”

She knew he didn’t mean for his wording to hurt, but it did. Back to a reality where her dad was dead. But this wasn’t reality either, if she didn’t exist… but if this Pete didn’t have a daughter, then maybe he wouldn’t mind meeting her…

Her lack of enthusiasm sank in to both men. “What is it?” the Doctor asked, looking down at her phone.

The disapproval in his voice rankled. _Where does he get off telling me what to do, especially after avoiding me for a week?_ “My phone connected,” she told him. “There’s this Cybus Network, it finds your phone. It gave me internet access.”

He cottoned on to what she’d done immediately. “Rose, whatever it says, this is the wrong world.”

“Maybe that’s why I don’t exist,” she shot back.

From the look in his eyes, that was not what he’d expected her to say. “What do you mean?”

“There’s no Rose Tyler; I was never born. There’s Pete, my dad, and Jackie, he still married Mum, but they never had kids.”

“Give me that phone.” The Doctor tried to take the phone from her, but she moved quickly, getting to her feet so he couldn’t reach the phone without moving.

“They’re rich,” she went on, and despite her frustration with him, she wanted him to hug her, to tell her that she wasn’t the one who had messed up her parents’ lives and kept her mum from having everything she deserved. “They’ve got a house and cars and everything they want.” She waited another minute, but he didn’t say anything. “But they haven’t got me,” she finished and left the bench.

The same longing she’d been fighting against since they’d arrived in this world rushed to the surface, and this time, he wouldn’t talk her out of it. She turned around to face the Doctor, ignoring the dizziness. “I’ve got to see him.”

“You can’t!”

“I just want to see him.”

The Doctor shook his head. “I can’t let you.”

Anger swelled up in Rose. “You just said twenty four hours!”

“You can’t become their daughter; that’s not the way it works.” He punctuated the statement with a hard shake of his head. “Mickey, tell her.”

One look at her old mate’s face and she knew he would side with her. “Twenty-four hours, yeah?” he said and jumped to his feet.

The Doctor stared at Mickey in confusion. This conversation had not gone as he’d expected. “Where are you going?” he asked frantically.

Mickey walked backward down the street. “Well, I can do what I want.”

On his left side, Rose walked farther down the sidewalk. She held her phone up. “I’ve got the address and everything.”

“Stay where you are, both of you!” he demanded. Timelines swam in and out of place again, and he was desperate to stop his companions before they did something they couldn’t undo. “Rose, come back here. Mickey, come back here, right now!”

“I just wanna see him!” she insisted, and in the insistence in her voice, he could tell she was promising not to interfere, not like last time. But he knew how tempting it would be, once she saw him, to step in and say something… and once they became part of events here, everything he saw went out of focus.

Mickey distracted him from the uncertain future. “Yeah, I’ve got things to see and all.”

“Like what?” he demanded.

Bitterness set Mickey’s face into hard lines. “Well, you don’t know nothing about me, do ya? It’s always about Rose, I’m just the spare part.”

As if to prove Mickey’s point, the Doctor looked back at Rose. There was an apology in her eyes, but her jaw was set and he knew he wouldn’t be able to change her mind. “I’m sorry, I’ve gotta go.”

“Go on then,” Mickey said, resignation in his voice. “There’s no choice, is there? You can only chase after one of us. It’s never gonna be me, is it?”

He looked after Rose and then turned to Mickey. _How did things go wrong so quickly?_ There was no way he could let Rose wander alone in a parallel universe. If something went wrong and she became trapped here… He imagined showing up at the Powell Estate without her, and he winced as the echo of Jackie Tyler’s slap chased him across the Void.

Rose turned away and started to walk a little faster, and his moment to stay with her was almost gone. “Back here, twenty four hours,” he commanded Mickey, and then chased Rose down the street.

 


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel it's only fair to warn you that although Rose and the Doctor do talk about a few things in this chapter, they've got a ways to go before things really start to be resolved between them. After all, this is chapter 13 of an estimated 38, so we're only 1/3 of the way into the story.

Chapter 13

Rose was halfway down the street when the Doctor caught up with her. “Mickey took off; he’s going to meet us back at the bench in twenty four hours.” She nodded. “What’s his story then? Seems I should have asked that earlier.”

She bit her lip. “Life on the Estate is hard for everyone, Doctor,” she said quietly. “Mum managed, but Mickey’s mum just couldn’t cope. His dad hung around for a while, but then he just sort of wandered off. He was brought up by his gran.”

Rose remembered how hurt Mickey had been when his dad disappeared. That had been what had really sealed their friendship—two fatherless kids, taking care of each other.

“She was such a great woman,” Rose continued. “God, she used to slap him!” She laughed a little and shook her head. “But then she died. She tripped and fell down the stairs. It was about five years ago now; I was still in school.”

“I never knew,” the Doctor said.

“Well you never asked,” Rose pointed out tartly.

“But you never said,” he protested.

Rose acknowledged the point with a shrug. She didn’t know why she’d never mentioned Mickey’s gran. “That’s Mickey,” she said. “I suppose… we just take him for granted.”

Rose’s stomach turned and she stumbled against the Doctor. “Whoa, are you all right?”

She grinned up at him, but he wasn’t smiling. “I’m fine,” she told him. “Just tripped over a bit of pavement is all.”

He looked behind them and she followed his gaze; the pavement was smooth. Rose ignored his raised eyebrows. He knew more about why she kept getting dizzy than she did. If he wanted to talk about it, he could start by explaining.

But the Doctor stayed silent. The question burned on the tip of Rose’s tongue, but she swallowed it back; the Doctor hadn’t been this at ease around her in almost two weeks, and she wasn’t about to ruin it by pushing him for more than he felt comfortable sharing.

“Do you think she’s still alive, his gran?_” she asked instead.

“Could be,” he answered. “Like I said, parallel world—gingerbread house. We need to get out of here as fast as we can.”

Beeping interrupted their conversation. Rose and the Doctor kept walking, but she quickly realised they were the only ones. “What are they all doing?”

“They’ve stopped.” Every single person, staring blankly into the space in front of them as if they could see something that wasn’t there.

Rose looked around, trying to see what was going on. “Doctor, they’re all wearing those ear things,” she said.

He was already staring at a flashing ear pod. “It’s like Bluetooth attachments, but everyone’s connected together.”

Rose’s phone started beeping and she pulled it out of her pocket. “It’s on my phone,” she said. “It’s automatic. Look, it’s downloading.” He looked over her shoulder, watching the daily report scroll by. “Is this what they’re all getting?”

The Doctor pulled the brainy specs from his pocket and slipped them on, and though she hadn’t minded their connection, she was glad he couldn’t tell yet again how much of a turn on they were.

She focused on her phone with some difficulty. “News, international news, sports, weather…”

“They get it direct,” he said, and the dread in his voice made her stomach sink. “Downloaded, right into their heads.”

Rose continued to read through the contents. “TV schedules, lottery numbers.”

There were horror movies that started like this. “Everyone shares the same information.” He took the phone from her and looked at the information. “The daily download, published by Cybus Industries.”

The same company that had connected Rose to their network, free of charge. _No such thing as a free lunch_ , she thought, looking at the blank faces around them.

“Joke” flashed on the screen, and around them the entire street full of people burst into laughter. That seemed to end the download, because everyone woke up from the trance they’d been under and walked on, as if that ninety second pause in their life hadn’t happened.

“You lot, you’re obsessed!” he said with a fair amount of disdain. “You’d do anything for the latest upgrade.”

“Oi, not my lot. Different world, remember?” Rose pointed out.

“Not so far off your world. This place is only parallel,” he pointed out as he used the browser on the phone to search for information on this Cybus Industries. “Oh, look at that,” he said, pointing at what he’d discovered. “Cybus Industries owns just about every major company in Britain, including Vitex. Mr. Pete Tyler’s very well connected.”

Rose rocked back on her heels and gave him the tongue-touched smile she knew he couldn’t resist. He looked down at her for a moment, and she watched his arguments crumble. “Oh, okay. I give up. Let’s go and see him,” he said, tossing the phone back at her and walking toward a cash point.

After surreptitiously using the sonic on a cash machine, they had enough cash to cover anything they might need before going home. Rose slipped her arm through his and glanced up at him through her eyelashes. “I wasn’t sure the sonic would work in a parallel world.”

“Of course the sonic works. Sound doesn’t change across the void.” He tucked it back into his coat pocket and hailed a cab.

Rose had just given the cabbie the Tylers’ address when she felt it again, that sensation that reality had just gone out of focus. She clenched her hand around the closest thing she could find, which happened to be the Doctor’s knee.

“What is it, Rose?”

The question rankled a little, because she was pretty sure he knew what was going on. Still, she figured it was the best opening she was going to get so she took it. “When Mickey and I were strapped to those tables and the droids wanted to cut us up, he tried to tell me that we’d been there for hours, and where were you. Only I knew it hadn’t been hours, only maybe twenty, thirty minutes at the most.”

The muscles around his mouth tightened almost imperceptibly.

“And then, when we were waiting for you to come back, I knew without looking at a watch how long you’d been gone.”

He pursed his lips into a thin line and looked away.

“Doctor, what else did Bad Wolf give me besides telepathy?”

Watching his reflection in the car window, Rose saw him close his eyes and clench his jaw, but he didn’t say anything. “What aren’t you telling me?” she pressed.

He took in a long breath and let it out slowly, his eyes still closed. She waited and finally her patience paid off when he turned back around to look at her. “Why do you think my people were called Time Lords, Rose?”

She shrugged. “Traveling in time, it makes sense.”

The Doctor shook his head. “That’s only part of it. I told you the other day that Time Lords have 27 senses. Most of them deal with time in some way or another.”

“So that’s why I can tell time without a watch. But Doctor… there’s more going on. I just started there because…” She shrugged, wincing when the motion sent a bolt of pain through her head.

The Doctor laughed mirthlessly. “Keeping track of time is only the smallest part of time senses, Rose. The bigger part is being aware of timelines, knowing when things are changing and when they can’t change.”

_When they can’t change._

Rose felt the last piece of the puzzle fall into place. “I knew Reinette couldn’t die, or that… that things couldn’t happen like they were.”

He nodded. “That is what it means to be a Time Lord.”

“But I’m not a Time Lord,” Rose protested. “Still human, still have one heart, still…” She let the words trail off, not wanting to remind him of the “wither and die” conversation.

“There’s never been a time sensitive human that I know of, Rose.”

She nodded, the information filtering through her mind. “An’ why’ve I been so dizzy ever since we got here?”

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “We aren’t supposed to be here,” he explained. “Travel across parallel worlds is dangerous; we’re damaging the very fabric of reality. That’s pulling on our own timelines, and any time there’s a significant change to your personal timeline, it can make you feel out of sorts.”

Rose frowned. “That makes it sound like my entire life is predestined or something.”

“No, not at all. You have complete choice, complete autonomy. But when outside forces start to mess with your life, especially when they come from outside your own time, that can affect your timeline and make you ill.”

Rose leaned back against the seat, trying to take it all in. The Doctor looked at her anxiously and she wanted to do something, say anything that might lessen the tension in the car. “You know, I always wondered what this would be like,” she said slyly.

“You wondered what it would be like to be trapped in a parallel world, or you wondered what it would be like to be able to sense timelines?”

She shook her head, enjoying his perplexed expression. “Neither. I always wondered what it would be like to bring a bloke home to meet my dad.”

The Doctor choked. “Rose… this isn’t… that’s… he’s not your dad!”

Her heart stuttered a bit when he didn’t argue about being her bloke. Striving to stay cool, she shrugged and glanced out the window before looking back at him. “Still, it’s the closest I’ll get. Might as well enjoy it.”

The Doctor sniffed and rummaged through his pockets. “Are you hungry?” he asked, holding up a banana. “It’s been a while since breakfast.”

“Yeah, actually,” she admitted. They ate their bananas in silence, and after wrapping the peels in a crumpled up paper bag he found in another pocket, he offered her a bottle of water. “What else d’you got in there?”

“This and that. Things I picked up and forgot to take out, things I used to use all the time…”

“Yeah, but how’s that work?” she asked, plunging her hand into his pocket.

He held back his laughter until she was elbow deep in his pocket. “Time Lord technology, Rose—they’re bigger on the inside.”

She bit her lip. “I think I’ve got something,” she said and pulled her arm back out, holding a paper bag. “What’s this?” she asked, unrolling the top. “Jelly babies?”

“I used to have a bit of a sweet tooth.”

“Used to?” she snorted. “I’ve seen the way you take your tea, and that jam you eat all the time isn’t exactly low sugar.”

She popped a sweet into her mouth. “I wonder how much longer it’ll take us to get there.”

“That address was quite a ways outside of central London,” he pointed out. “Apparently Pete Tyler doesn’t live among the common folk.”

“Hey, that’s my dad you’re talking about—sorta. Oh, this parallel world stuff is making my headache worse.” She put a hand to her temple and grimaced.

The Doctor took in the crease in her forehead and the thin line around her mouth. “Come here,” he said and tugged on her arm until her head rested on his shoulder. “We’ll have a bit of an adventure and then be home by this time tomorrow. How’s that sound?”

“Better than being stuck here,” she finally admitted, but for once, he didn’t gloat about being right.

Rose slipped her fingers through his and the comforting gesture felt more intimate than it usually did. “Do you want me to use the sonic on your headache?” he asked, looking for an excuse to move.

He felt her shake her head against his shoulder. “Let’s just sit here and watch the sun set,” she suggested.

It was well past dusk when they finally reached the Tyler estate. The taxi stopped by the ornate gate. “This is as far as I can take you,” he said.

The Doctor handed him the fare. “This is good, thanks,” he said and helped Rose out of the car. “Shall we?” he asked, offering his hand.

The gate had a camera and security, but a few feet down the wall there was a smaller gate for people to walk through. Glancing over his shoulder to make sure the camera couldn’t see them, the Doctor pointed the sonic at the lock and pushed the gate open.

“We should stay off the driveway, just in case anyone comes home,” he said, striking a path parallel with the drive but about five feet to the left of it, behind the shrubbery lining the way.

He regretted his decision as night fell. He could still see just fine, but Rose was struggling a bit with the undergrowth. He was about to suggest they risk the drive when the trees opened up on a well manicured lawn.

Rose dropped to her knees in the edge of the brush. Before the Doctor could ask if she was hurt, he heard a car coming up the drive. He immediately crouched down beside her, trying to lower their profile. “They’ve got visitors,” he said, watching the limousine pull up to the door.

“February the first, Mum’s birthday,” Rose said, keeping her voice down. “Even in a parallel universe, she still loves a party.”

Every time they came across one more similarity with their world, the Doctor’s anxiety ramped up another notch. This was why parallel worlds were like gingerbread houses. They were just close enough to reality to draw in unsuspecting visitors, but lurking inside was the evil witch, waiting to turn them into soup.

Still, they were at the Tyler residence for a reason. The activities of Cybus Industries were at the heart of the wibbly timelines, and he intended to find out exactly what they were up to.

“Well, given Pete Tyler’s guest list, I wouldn’t mind a look,” he said, nodding toward the activity at the door. “And there is one guaranteed way of getting inside,” he added, waving his leather wallet in her face.

“Psychic paper!”

“Who do you wanna be?” he asked, a slight grin on his face.

“Oh, I wish we had time to go back to the TARDIS and change. There’s a gorgeous red dress in there I’ve been dying to wear, and this would be the perfect chance.”

The Doctor cleared his throat. “Yep. Too bad there’s no time,” he said quickly. “Tell you what though,” he said, nodding at the catering van parked in back. “I bet they have extra uniforms, in case of accidents.”

He started down the hill before Rose had a chance to argue. Rose in a slinky red dress was not something he wanted to see. Well, it was, but it wasn’t something he should want to see. Well, seeing it wouldn’t necessarily be bad, but…

“Excuse me, can I help you?”

The Doctor blinked. He’d reached the servants’ entrance without even realising it. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw with a modicum of relief that Rose had followed him. “Right. Headquarters sent us. Apparently the party is going to be busier than expected, and they said you’d need extra help.”

He waved the psychic paper under the man’s nose, and little lines of tension around his eyes disappeared. “Oh, thank God,” he said and wiped at his forehead. “We’ve had to send two home sick.” He appraised the two of them and shook his head. “You’re not in uniform, but we can take care of that.”

The caterer led the way to the van and rummaged through the sizes. “I think these will fit,” he said, shoving packages at Rose and the Doctor. “Go through the servants’ entrance and there’s a small washroom on the left. You can change in there.”

The Doctor changed first, wincing with just a hint of dread when he put on the tux. Events with tuxedos never ended well, but maybe since it was just a uniform it wouldn’t be as bad.

While Rose changed into her uniform, the Doctor wandered into the kitchen. “Hello then,” said a girl about Rose’s age, smiling up at him. “You’re new, aren’t you? I’m Lucy—let me show you how things work back here.”

She pointed out the service stations, where to drop your empty tray and pick up a new one, and where the towels were if there was a mess that needed to be cleaned up. “So Lucy,” he said, once she’d completed the tour. “Who all is on the guest list tonight?”

Lucy dragged him over to the door where they could just see through into the main room. “Look!” she said, pointing at a tall black man chatting and laughing with Pete Tyler. “The president is here.”

“President of what?” the Doctor asked. “Sorry, it’s just I can’t quite tell who you’re pointing at…”

“Of Great Britain, of course! Don’t you see him?”

He nodded. “Oh, of course! The president. Well, this is quite the glittering assemblage, isn’t it?” he said, wondering if Disney existed in this parallel universe.

“Lucy! What are you doing, standing around?” His guide blushed and ducked away, grabbing a drink tray and leaving the kitchen just as Rose entered.

The Doctor smiled and handed her a tray of nibbles. “Are you ready to circulate?” he said, trying to ignore how well the black dress showed off her bum.

“We could have been anyone,” she muttered as they walked through the foyer, trays in hand.

Her resentment caught him off guard. “It got us in, didn’t it?”

“You’re in charge of the psychic paper; we could have been guests! Celebrities, Sir Doctor and Dame Rose. We end up serving. I do enough of this back home.” _Ah, the dinner lady complaint again_.

Guests approached them—all of them wearing ear pods—and they both plastered fake smiles on their faces for a moment as champagne and crudités disappeared from their trays. Around them, people were talking without even realising they were there, and the Doctor remembered a good reason to dress as staff.

“You want to know what’s going on, work in the kitchen. According to Lucy, that man over there—”

“Who’s Lucy?”

The Doctor felt just the barest hint of something that matched her tone of voice, but he couldn’t put his finger on what it was. _Confusion? She wasn’t there when I met Lucy._ “She’s… carrying the salad pinwheels.”

Something tugged at the telepathic centre of his brain, and he was sure of it then. As the power cell from the TARDIS recharged, their connection was coming back, but it was still too faint for him to pick up anything besides the barest hint of emotion.

“Oh, that’s Lucy is it?” Rose asked, mild disdain in her voice.

“Yeah. Lucy says that is the president of Great Britain.”

“Oh, there’s a president, not a prime minister?” Rose asked.

“Apparently so,” the Doctor said, his curiosity killing him. He’d been so glad not to have that connection to Rose, but now he was dying to know what that elusive feeling was.

Rose rolled her eyes and lifted her tray a bit higher. “Well maybe Lucy’s just a bit thick,” she said.

Pieces slotted into place. _Jealousy. Well. That’s… brilliant. No, not brilliant._

While the Doctor was trying to decide if he liked the idea of Rose being jealous, or if it would just make everything more complicated than it already was, Rose’s attention was caught by a voice she would recognise anywhere. She made her way through the crowd as quickly as she could, the Doctor following after her.

“Excuse me!” her… not her dad said. “Thank you very much. Excuse me. If I could have your attention please.”

The crowd quieted, and he smiled in thanks. Rose stared up at him, her heart caught in her throat. She’d never thought she’d see him again, after he’d died in her arms. But there he was, standing in front of her…

“I’d just like to say thank you to you all for coming on this very special occasion. My wife’s… 39th.” The crowd chuckled, and Rose joined in. _So like Mum, always fighting getting older…_ “Trust me on this,” Pete added, giving them a thumbs-up. “And so, without further ado, here she is. The birthday girl, my lovely wife, Jackie Tyler.”

He pointed to the top of the staircase and Rose looked. A part of her died a little when she saw how good Jackie looked, all dressed up with her hair done nicely. This was the life they could have had… might have had… if they hadn’t had her.

This world’s Jackie walked down the stairs like some movie star, to the applause and cheers of the crowd. Even the man Lucy said was the president of Great Britain was clapping.

She stopped beside her husband, and Rose choked up when he looked at her with adoration in his eyes. “Now, I’m not giving a speech,” she declared, and Rose grinned a little. “That’s what my parties are famous for. No work, no politics, just a few good mates… and plenty of black market whisky.”

Everyone laughed, and Jackie looked down into the crowd. “Pardon me, Mr. President.”

_So Lucy’s not so thick after all_.

Jackie encouraged them to all enjoy the party, and then she and Pete walked down the stairs hand in hand before separating.

“You can’t stay,” the Doctor muttered to her. “Even if there was some way of telling them.”

“Of course I can’t.” _Does he really think I’d leave home behind, just because this world has something ours doesn’t_?The lack of trust stung. “I’ve still got my mum at home, my real mum. I couldn’t just leave her, could I?”

And it wasn’t even seeing her dad that made her sad anymore. It was the two of them together, so happy, and… “It’s just… they’ve got each other. Mum’s got no one.”

“She’s got you, those two haven’t,” the Doctor protested, and for the first time since they’d landed in the parallel world, she felt a hint of his emotions. Something there, something comforting, but she couldn’t tell what it was.

_An’ my head feels a lot clearer too._ Rose had a sudden suspicion she knew exactly why her head hurt so much, and wondered why the Doctor hadn’t figured it out for himself.

Before she could offer her idea, he continued with his own train of thought. “All these different worlds, not one of them gets it right.” Despite herself Rose felt a little glad that in his mind, a world without her wasn’t right.

“Rose!” Her mum’s voice calling her name jerked her out of her thoughts. She looked over, surprised, and saw a little dog run over to her. This world’s Jackie picked the up the dog, cooing over it and talking to it in baby talk.

_They named… the dog Rose?_

The Doctor started laughing, but he sobered when Rose glared up at him. “Right,” he said. “I’ll just go… investigate, shall I?”

“And I’ll keep circulating,” she said, smiling beatifically.

He looked at her sharply. When she said circulate, she meant she’d find Pete and Jackie and talk to them. _I can’t stop her,_ he realised finally. _And as long as she knows she can’t stay…_

“Just stay out of trouble,” he mumbled.

The bit of TARDIS coral in the Doctor’s pocket pulsed as he left Rose behind. He knew exactly what she was going to do, but they were here for a reason. Despite what he’d told Rose about learning things in the kitchen, so far they hadn’t picked up anything they hadn’t known.

But the uniform did help him blend into the background in a way he wouldn’t have done if he were a guest. He snuck down a corridor that was definitely not open to guests, looking both ways to make sure there weren’t any regular staff people looking.

He peeked through the door of an office, from the looks of it, where Pete worked from home. The computer screensaver was the Cybus Industries logo, and he grinned. This was definitely the right place then.

On went the specs and he leaned over the terminal, making quick work of the password and accessing the encrypted files. _What is Cybus Industries really up to?_

The most recently opened file was a presentation, and the Doctor opened it. A three dimensional model of a human head turned slowly on the screen, and in the background, a man’s voice said, “The most precious thing on earth is the human brain.”

A niggle of unease grew to outright dread. Saving the brain by removing it from the frail body. Encasing it instead in a cybernetic suit. He’d seen this before, though this was a slightly different take than what he was used to.

“This is the ultimate upgrade,” the voiceover announced. “Our greatest step into cyberspace.”

And finally, the recognisable headpiece appeared and he knew without a doubt. _Cybermen!_

Timelines grew stronger around him, and something else did too—fear, and not his own. Wherever Rose was, she was afraid. And if the Cybermen in this world were anything like the ones he had dealt with before, they’d love an opportunity like a party filled with important guests to convert.

He dashed down the hallway and scanned the ballroom for Rose. She entered from the other side and he followed her to the window, putting his hands on the glass to peer out onto the grounds.

Outside, a platoon of Cybermen marched toward the house. “It’s happening again,” he said.

Curiosity mingled with her fear. “What do you mean?”

“I’ve seen them before,” he told her, trying not to think about all the times he’d fought the Cybermen. Sometimes he’d won, but not always…

“What are they?”

“Cybermen.”

Glass shattered behind them and they ducked down to the floor. All around them, Cybermen smashed through the windows and marched into the room, surrounding the guests. Beside the Doctor, the president of Great Britain received a call on his earpiece. “Mr. Lumic.”

The Doctor looked around at the Cybermen. In their world, they were a race who chose to do this to themselves. These had started out human and had been “volunteered” for the upgrade.

“I forbade this!” the president said.

_At least the government isn’t complicit in the scheme._

The room had been full before, but with the Cybermen, everyone was standing shoulder to metal shoulder. “What are they?” Rose asked quietly. “Are they robots?”

“Worse than that,” he told her. “Cybermen.”

“Who were these people?” the president asked.

“They’re people?” Rose asked, and he felt a ripple of horror from her.

“They were, until they had all their humanity taken away. That’s a living brain jammed inside a cybernetic body, with a heart of steel. All emotions removed.”

“Why no emotions?” she asked.

The Doctor drew in a breath. “Because it hurts.”

The president shouted, interrupting their conversation. “I demand to know, Lumic—these people, who are they?”

A moment later, a Cyberman stomped into place in front of the president. “We have been upgraded.”

“Into what?” the Doctor asked.

“The next level of mankind. We are human point two. Every citizen will receive a free upgrade. You will become like us.”

Despite himself, the Doctor couldn’t help but marvel at how similar this was to the speech he’d heard so many times before. _So much the same…_

The president shook his head. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry for what’s been done to you.”

The Doctor watched in horror, realising the man was going to try to reason with a creature with no emotions.

“But listen to me,” he continued, pacing in front of the Cybermen, speaking with all the persuasive skills of a gifted orator. “This experiment ends tonight.”

“Upgrading is compulsory.”

“And if I refuse?” the President asked calmly.

“Don’t,” the Doctor warned him.

The President turned slightly to the Doctor. “What if I refuse?”

“I’m telling you, don’t!” There was only one answer from a Cyberman when someone refused to be upgraded—deletion.

But the President pressed his point, now addressing himself to both the Doctor and the Cyberman. “What happens if I refuse?”

The Cyberman finally answered. “Then you are not compatible.”

“What happens then?” the president asked, and the Doctor watched, knowing what was about to happen and hating himself for not being able to stop it.

“You will be deleted.” The Cyberman grabbed the president by the shoulder and shocked him with enough electric voltage to stop his heart.

The guests had been watching in mute horror, but now, panic broke out. People screamed and ran for the doors, and the Doctor grabbed Rose’s hand. “There’s nothing we can do,” he told her, pulling her through one of the broken out windows.

“My mum’s in there!” she protested, pulling away.

He grabbed her hand again. “She is not your mother. Come on!”

On the lawn, they met a formation of Cybermen marching on the house. They turned and ran the other way, and met more Cybermen. Rose, looking behind them, spotted Pete Tyler leaping out the same window and called to him to follow.

“Pete, is there a way out?” the Doctor asked.

“The side gate,” he said, leading the way. “Who are you? And how do you know so much?”

“You wouldn’t believe me in a million years,” the Doctor told him.

Cybermen blocked the way to the side gate, and they skidded to a halt. Behind them, more Cybermen closed in. The Doctor looked around frantically, hoping to find a way out.

“Who’s that?” Rose asked, staring at headlights blinding them.

“Get behind me!” a familiar voice said, but this Mickey was holding a gun in a familiar way their Mickey never had. He and his friend tried to stop the assault, but to no avail.

When they stopped, Rose pulled Mickey to his feet. “Oh my god, look at you,” she muttered, dragging him close for a hug. “I thought I’d never see you again!”

The snarl on his face confirmed the Doctor’s suspicion that this was not their Mickey Smith. “Yeah, no offence sweetheart, but who the hell are you?”

“Rose!” another Mickey called out, and they all turned around. “That’s not me. That’s like… the other one.”

“Oh, as if things weren’t bad enough, there’s two Mickeys!” the Doctor exclaimed.

“It’s Ricky,” Mickey’s double said.

“But there’s more of them,” Mickey said, drawing them back to the more important issue.

“We’re surrounded,” Rose said.

There was only one way out of this. “Put the guns down,” the Doctor ordered. “Bullets won’t stop them.” Ricky’s partner started shooting at them anyway, and the Doctor ran to him and knocked the gun out of his hand. “Stop shooting at them, now!”

He looked at the Cybermen circling around them. “We surrender! Put your hands up,” he told his companions. “There’s no need to damage us, we’re good stock. We volunteer for the upgrade program. Take us to be processed.”

“You are rogue elements.”

The Doctor fought back panic. He hadn’t expected this to work for long, at least not any longer than it took them to find his binary vascular system. He _had_ thought it would give him long enough to find another plan though.

“But we surrender.”

“You are incompatible.”

Beside him, Rose drew in a quick breath. He could feel her fear now, taste it in the air like iron. He’d promised Jackie to keep her safe, and he’d failed. She wouldn’t even know what had happened, wouldn’t be able to explain her only daughter’s disappearance to her friends.

“You will be deleted.”

“But we’re surrendering, listen to me, we surrender!”

“You are inferior. Man will be reborn as Cyberman, but you will perish under maximum deletion.”

“Delete. Delete. Delete. Delete.”

 


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

_Delete. Delete. Delete. Delete._

In the Doctor’s jacket pocket, the chunk of TARDIS coral pulsed hot. _Of course! TARDIS energy from another universe could be enough to shut their systems down._ He yanked it out and let the power that had been building arc out into the Cybermen.

The Cybermen in front of them disintegrated. “What the hell was that?” Ricky asked.

“We’ll have that instead,” the Doctor shouted. “Run!”

“Doctor…”

The Doctor turned just in time to catch Rose as she collapsed. He could hear Cybermen moving toward them, but with Rose in his arms he wouldn’t be able to run fast enough to get away.

Before he could panic, a van roared up, the driver laying on the horn. “Everybody IN!” she ordered, and Ricky and his partner ran to open the doors.

Out of the corner of his eye, the Doctor saw Pete start toward the house. “Mickey, stop him!” he yelled, and Mickey grabbed Pete in a tackle and pulled him toward the van.

“I’ve got to go back, my wife’s in there,” Pete begged as they shoved him into the vehicle.

The Doctor passed Rose to Mickey and climbed in after him. “Anyone inside that house is dead,” he said bluntly.

He sat down on the bench seat across from Mickey and pulled Rose back into his arms and held her tight. _What happened? Why’d she faint? It happened right after I used the TARDIS coral…_ _Oh, stupid Doctor!_ With the power cell now having to recharge almost from zero, their connection to the TARDIS was again almost nonexistent.

He’d been too grateful before to have his mind to himself to consider why they were temporarily connected in the first place. Without the TARDIS protecting Rose from the nastier side effects of developing telepathic skills, the psychic feedback was probably excruciating.

“Aren’t you going to introduce your friends, Mickey?” he said. “We’ve met Ricky, but who are the other two?”

“That’s Jake and Mrs. Moore,” he said. “What’s wrong with Rose?”

“It’s the TARDIS,” the Doctor answered quietly, not really wanting people they didn’t know to understand the level of Rose’s connection to their ship. “It’s in her head a little, and without it, I think it’s giving her a headache.”

He pulled the power cell out of his pocket and Ricky pointed at it. “What was that thing?”

“A little bit of technology from my home,” he answered, truthfully and yet evasively.

In his arms, Rose stirred, lifting a hand to her head. “My head… s’like I can hear everything,” she moaned softly.

The Doctor’s hearts clenched. He remembered exactly how badly psychic feedback hurt, and he knew Rose hadn’t had time to develop the barriers necessary to keep the noise out. “Has it been bothering you since we got here?” he asked.

She nodded, and he sighed. “I am sorry, Rose. I’m so, so sorry.”

“Don’t say that,” she ordered, sitting upright. “You only say that to people when they’re going to die.”

“You’re not going to die,” he promised, biting back the word again. “At least not any time soon.”

Mickey looked at the power cell. “It’s stopped glowing, has it run out?”

“It’s on a revitalising loop,” he reassured him. “It’ll charge back up in about four hours.”

“Right, so we don’t have a weapon anymore,” Ricky said, looking back at them through the screen separating the front of the van from the back.

“Yeah, we’ve got weapons,” Jake said. “Might not work on those metal things, but they’re good enough for men like him,” he said, nodding at Pete.

Despite the pounding in her head, Rose still managed to glare at the blond man. “Leave him alone!” she ordered. “What’s he done wrong? And who are you anyway?”

The Doctor leaned closer. “That’s Jake, and Mrs. Moore is driving.”

Rose nodded. _They must have done introductions while I was unconscious._ “So go on then Jake, what’s Pete Tyler done that’s so horrible?”

“Oh, you know, just laid a trap that’s wiped out the government and left Lumic in charge.”

Pete glared at him, anger radiating from his eyes. “If I was part of all that, do you think I’d leave my wife inside?”

Ricky shrugged. “Maybe your plan went wrong. Still gives us the right to execute you though.”

“You talk about executions, you’ll make me your enemy,” the Doctor said. “And take some really good advice, you don’t wanna do that.”

Ricky and Jake looked the Doctor in the eye and backed off, though they continued to glare at Pete. “All the same,” Ricky said. “We have evidence that says Pete Tyler’s been working for the Lumic since 20.5.”

Rose swallowed hard and looked at Pete. _It’s not possible. My dad would never…_

“Is that true?” she asked. Pete sighed and looked away.

“Tell ‘em, Mrs. M,” Ricky ordered.

The driver started rattling off information at an impressive rate. “We’ve got a government mole who feeds us information. Lumic’s private files, his South American operations, the lot. Secret broadcasts, twice a week.”

Pete’s mouth twisted as if he’d just swallowed something sour. “Broadcasts from Gemini?” he asked, and Rose thought she knew who Gemini was.

“And how do you know that?” Ricky demanded.

“I’m Gemini, that’s me,” Pete said, anger and frustration rolling off of him.

“Yeah, well you would say that,” Ricky said.

The Doctor rolled his eyes, and Rose didn’t need telepathy to know what he was thinking. _Does being an idiot go across the void too? How would he know the name Gemini if it wasn’t him?_

“Encrypted wavelength 657 using binary nine. That’s the only reason I was working for Lumic, to get information.” He shot Ricky a disbelieving look. “I thought I was broadcasting to the security services. What do I get? Scooby-doo and his gang. They’ve even got the van.”

“No, no, no,” Mickey said. “But the Preachers know what they’re doing! Ricky said he’s London’s most wanted.”

“Yeah, that’s not exactly…” Ricky’s voice trailed off.

“Not exactly what?” Mickey pressed.

“I’m London’s most wanted… for parking tickets.”

For the first time since he’d seen the Cybermen on Pete Tyler’s lawn, the Doctor felt the insane urge to laugh. They were trapped in a parallel universe at the dawn of the Cybermen, in a van with gang of misfits wanted for unpaid parking tickets—it was laugh or cry.

“Great,” Pete muttered, and the Doctor felt a stab of sympathy for him. He’d been trying to do something, and it turned out it probably wouldn’t do a bit of good.

“Yeah, but they were deliberate!” Ricky insisted. “I was fighting the system—park anywhere, that’s me.”

“Good policy,” the Doctor said, a smirk in his voice. “I do much the same. I’m the Doctor, by the way, if anyone is interested.”

“And I’m Rose,” she said, smiling weakly. “Hello.”

“Even better,” Pete grumbled. “That’s the name of my dog. Still, at least I’ve got the catering staff on my side.”

“I knew you weren’t a traitor,” Rose told him.

“Why’s that then?” he asked.

The Doctor caught her eye before she could say, _Oh, because you’re my dad in my world and I knew my dad wouldn’t ever do that._

She plastered a half smile on her face and shrugged. “I just did.”

“They took my wife,” Pete said, and the Doctor could sympathise with the agony in his voice. He’d felt the same panic to save Rose when he’d seen the Cybermen coming, but he’d managed to get her out.

“She might still be alive,” Rose said, trying to encourage him, and the Doctor shuddered.

“That’s even worse,” Pete said. “Because that’s what Lumic does. He takes the living and he turns them into those machines.”

“Cybermen,” the Doctor said. “They’re called Cybermen. And I’d take those ear pods off if I were you,” just noticing that Pete was still wearing his. The Doctor took them from Pete and used the sonic screwdriver to break the connection to Cybus Industries. “You never know, Lumic could be listening.”

A plan started to click in the Doctor’s mind. “But he’s overreached himself; he’s still just a businessman. He’s assassinated the president. All we need to do is get to the city and inform the authorities. Because I promise you, this ends tonight.”

The rest of the drive into the city was quiet, everyone lost in their own thoughts. The Doctor tried not to stare at Rose, but his eyes kept drifting to her. Being in this parallel universe was making her sick. He had to get her out. He’d even put up with their empathic connection if she was so dependent on it.

They reached the city ten minutes later and Mickey opened the van doors. Rose’s vision greyed out when she stood up and she wobbled on her feet a bit; the Doctor’s arms shot out to steady her. “Are you going to be okay?”

“I don’t really have a choice,” she pointed out, squeezing his hand until her vision returned to normal, leaving behind a headache that was exponentially worse than what she’d experienced so far.

When they got out of the van, the plan that should have been so simple had already fallen apart around them. Everywhere they looked, people were walking around like zombies.

_Not quite zombies,_ she realised after looking more closely. The movements weren’t aimless like you saw in zombie movies. Everyone was walking in the same direction, but none of them were aware of what they were doing.

“What’s going on?” Rose asked.

“It’s the ear pods,” the Doctor said. “Lumic’s taken control.”

“Can’t we just… I don’t know, take them off?” she asked, reaching up to one.

“Don’t,” the Doctor said, pulling her hand back. “You could cause a brainstorm.”

Rose looked at the people around her, all innocent, all victims of Lumic’s plan. _How are we going to save them now?_

The Doctor wove through the crowd of drones. “The human race, for such an intelligent lot, you aren’t half susceptible. Give anyone a chance to take control, and you submit! Sometimes I think you like it, an easy life.”

Rose couldn’t hold in her noise of protest. _When have I ever taken the easy path? I’ve followed you everywhere since, “Run.”_ He flinched from the accusation in her eyes and smiled softly in apology.

Jake waved them over. “Come and see,” he whispered.

Rose looked one more time at the street full of Lumic’s victims, all unaware they were marching to be slaughtered, then she joined everyone else at the corner.

When she got there, she realised why Jake had whispered. As they watched, people exited every house on the street where legions of Cybermen waited to escort them… somewhere. “Where are they all going?” Rose asked.

“I don’t know. Lumic must have a base of operations.”

Pete nodded. “Battersea. That’s where he was building his prototypes.”

“Why’s he doing it?” Rose asked. _Maybe if we could understood it, we could stop it._

“He’s dying,” Pete explained. “This all started as a way of prolonging life, keeping the brain alive, at any cost.”

“The thing is, I’ve seen Cybermen before, haven’t I?” Rose said. “The head, with those handle shapes, that was in Van Statten’s museum.”

The Doctor raised his eyebrows, impressed by her memory. “There are Cybermen in our universe. They started on an ordinary world just like this, then swarmed across the galaxy. This lot are a parallel version, and they’re started from scratch right here on Earth.”

“What the hell are you two on about?” Pete asked.

“Never mind that,” Ricky said, and for once, the Doctor was grateful to the Smith men. “Come on, we need to get out of the city. Okay, split up. Mrs. Moore, you look after that bloke.” He pointed at the Doctor. “Jake, distract them. Go right, I’ll go left, we’ll meet back at Bridge Street. Move!”

Ricky and Jake started moving, and despite what had been said in the van about Scooby-doo, the Doctor was a teensy bit impressed.

“I’m going with him,” Mickey announced abruptly and kissed Rose goodbye before running off.

Mrs. Moore started down the street in the opposite direction. “Come on, let’s go,” she urged them all as Cybermen approached from all sides.

Accustomed to running, the Doctor and Rose soon outpaced the rest of the group. Luckily, the streets in this London seemed to follow the same plan they were familiar with, and they managed to make their way through the streets without any difficulty.

They hid behind some dustbins in an alleyway, and the dull metal clanking of Cybermen followed them. _They have us on satellite,_ the Doctor realised. _They can tell exactly where we are, and direct the Cybermen to follow us._

Well, there was only one way to combat that. He pulled out the sonic and used a setting designed to scramble frequencies. The Cybermen were suddenly listening to a normal radio station instead of their command centre, and confused, they marched away.

Still, it only bought them a few minutes. As soon as they were out of sight, the Doctor whispered to Mrs. Moore, “Go,” and she led the way back into the streets.

Rose was a little out of breath and lightheaded when they reached Bridge Street, and when the Doctor rested his hand on her back, she leaned back against it. Jake dashed toward them a moment later, before the Doctor could offer to use the sonic on her headache again.

“I’ve gone past the river, you should have seen it,” Jake said. “The whole city’s on the march. Hundreds of Cybermen, all down the Thames.”

A figure rounded the corner at the end of the street. One man, a silhouette Rose would know anywhere… _But is it Mickey or Ricky?_ He ran closer, and from the look in his eyes they could all tell that whoever he was, the other wouldn’t be joining them.

“Here he is,” Jake said. He furrowed his brow. “Which one are you?”

“I’m sorry, the Cybermen. I couldn’t…”

Jake leaned into his face. “Are you Ricky? Are you Ricky?”

Rose looked at him, looked at him close. She’d known Mickey her whole life. She’d even seen him as a little baby on the day her dad died. “Mickey, that’s you isn’t it?” she asked, almost certain.

He nodded a little. “Yeah.” She dashed forward and wrapped him in a hug.

“I tried,” Mickey explained to Jake. “We was running, there was too many of them.”

Jake stalked off, and Rose could feel the anger and grief rolling off him. If the positions had been reversed, she wouldn’t have taken too kindly to Ricky either.

“Shut it,” Jake demanded.

Mickey took a step toward him. “There was nothing I could do.”

“I said just shut it! Don’t even talk about him. You’re nothing, you are. Nothing.”

Rose swayed on her feet, and the Doctor reached out an arm to steady her. “Did you feel that too?” he whispered.

“Yeah, what’s happening?”

“Timelines are changing.” To Jake, he said, “We can mourn him when London is safe. For now, we move on.”

They couldn’t go more than a few blocks without ducking behind dustbins or hedges to avoid patrolling Cybermen, so even at a brisk jog, it was still almost half an hour before they were looking across the river at Battersea. Parked between the familiar smokestacks was a giant zeppelin, probably belonging to Lumic himself.

“The whole of London’s been sealed off, and the entire population’s been taken inside that place to be converted,” the Doctor said.

“We’ve got to get in there and shut it down,” Rose said.

The Doctor frowned down at her. Her voice was firm and positive, but he could hear the strain underneath it. Her head was still hurting, even though the TARDIS was powering up faster this time than it had before.

“How do we do that?” Mickey asked.

“Oh, I’ll think of something,” the Doctor said.

“You’re just making this up as you go along!”

“Yup!” he said, popping the p. “But I do it brilliantly.”

“I can help with the planning,” Mrs. Moore said. Everyone joined her at a picnic table and she opened her laptop and brought up a file. “That’s a schematic of the old factory. Look, cooling tunnels underneath the plant, big enough to walk through.”

He peered down at the screen. “We go under and them up into the control centre.”

She nodded.

“There’s another way in,” Pete said, and the Doctor had seen the same determined expression on Rose’s face enough times to know he was about to suggest something incredibly risky. “Through the front door. If they’ve taken Jackie for upgrading, that’s how she’ll get in.”

“We can’t just go strolling up,” Jake pointed out.

“Well we could,” Mrs. M said, rummaging around in her bag and pulling out a set of ear pods. The Doctor took one from her and looked it over. “With these. Fake ear pods. Dead. No signal. But put them on, the Cybermen would mistake you for one of the crowd.”

“Then that’s my job,” Pete declared.

“You’d have to show no emotion,” the Doctor warned. “None at all. Any sign of emotion would give you away.”

He knew how badly Pete wanted to get Jackie back, and he seriously doubted the man would be capable of this. He knew he wouldn’t be, if the positions were reversed. If Rose had been taken from him, there was no way he’d be able to control his emotions enough…

He pushed back the thought.

“How many of those do you got?” Rose asked, her expression matching Pete’s.

“Two sets,” Mrs. Moore answered.

“Okay,” she said, taking them both and handing a set to Pete. “That’s the best way of finding Jackie; I’m coming with ya.”

Pete looked down at her, his forehead scrunched up in confusion. “Why does she matter to you?” he asked.

“We haven’t got time,” Rose said curtly. “Doctor, I’m going with him and that’s that.”

“There’s no arguing with you, is there?” he asked helplessly.

Oh, how he wanted to argue. Not just because this was dangerous, but because he could tell looking at her that the headache was getting worse. If she got in there and passed out because of the pain, it would all be over.

She shook her head. “Nope.”

He tossed one of the ear pods to her, now looking for a way to make her entry safer. “Tell you what,” he said. “We can take the ear pods at the same time. Give people their minds back so they don’t walk into that place like sheep.” _And hopefully in the confusion of all their sheep having minds of their own, Rose and Pete will be able to get in and out without difficulty._

“Jakey boy,” he said, and the blond man jogged with him to a better vantage point of the factory. “Lumic’s transmitting the control signal. It must be from over there.” He pointed the sonic at the factory, trying to pick up the signal.

After a minute, the dial around the propeller on the zeppelin lit up. “There it is, on the zeppelin, do you see?” Jake nodded. “Great big transmitter. Good thing Lumic likes showing off. Reckon you can take it out?”

Jake smiled for the first time since Ricky had died. “Consider it done.”

_And one more point of entry…_ “Mrs. Moore, would you care to accompany me into the cooling tunnels?”

“How could I refuse an offer of cooling tunnels?” she asked cheekily.

The Doctor faced his crew. “We attack on three sides. Above, between, below. We get into the control centre, we stop the conversion machines.”

“What about me?” a sixth voice asked.

He looked over at Mickey, not sure what to say. “Mickey. You can…”

Rose’s ex-boyfriend drew himself up, fire in his eyes. “What? Stay out of trouble, be the tin dog? No, those days are over.” Mickey shook his head. “I’m going with Jake.”

Jake’s scowl was almost frightening. “I don’t need you, idiot.”

The Doctor was at Rose’s side before she could even start to lose her feet. “Whoa there,” he said. “Rose, are you sure about this?” Behind them, Mickey and Jake were arguing, but he couldn’t care less what the outcome of that discussion was. What he cared about was Rose, unable to handle the shifts to their personal timelines that got stronger the longer they stayed in this parallel universe.

“You’re gonna have to teach me how to handle this,” she said, shaking her head.

Movement caught his eye; Jake was stomping off toward the factory and Mickey was chasing after him. “He still hasn’t decided,” the Doctor said quietly.

“I know.”

“Mickey!” Their friend looked back at them. “Good luck.”

“Yeah, you too. Rose, I’ll see you later.”

“Yeah, you’d better.”

“If we survive this, I’ll see you back at the TARDIS.” He smiled at Mickey, finally letting the other man see how proud he was to call him a friend.

Mickey nodded, a surprised smile on his face. “That’s a promise.” And then he walked off.

There was one thing he could do to help Rose. He’d avoided it until now, but her safety depended on being able to stay clear headed. “Rose, can I have a moment?” the Doctor asked, taking her hand and pulling her away from the group.

“You’re not talking me out of this, Doctor,” she warned him, her arms crossed over her chest.

“I’m not going to try—not because I don’t want to, but because I know it wouldn’t do any good.” He put his hands on her shoulders and looked her in the eye. “How bad is your head?”

She shrugged. “I’ve had worse after a night out.” He raised an eyebrow and she sighed. “Yeah, it hurts, but there’s nothing we can do about it, and I can’t just stay here.”

He shook his head. “No, but you can’t go in there in this much pain either. It’ll be hard enough for you to stay emotionless. Pain would be a dead giveaway.”

“So what’s your answer then?”

He raised one of his hands, hovering by her temple. “I could strengthen your barriers for you, quiet the noise.”

She blew out a long breath. “Please.”

The quiet admission of pain killed him. He gently placed his hands on her temples, going into her mind. Without the steady hum of the TARDIS, it felt quiet. He worked quickly to shore her mental barriers, and a moment later, he felt her exhale and knew some of the pain had eased.

He dropped his hand to her shoulder and pulled her close. “Good luck,” he whispered in her ear, hoping she heard everything he didn’t say—how much he needed her to stay safe, how worried he was, his promise that he would do his best to get them out of there.

Rose pulled back a moment later, a weak smile on her face. “You be careful,” she said. “I don’t want to spend the rest of my life here.”

“That’s a promise, Rose Tyler,” he said. “We’ll take care of the Cybermen and be back on our side of the void before you know it.”

Letting go of her was hard, but watching her walk away with Pete was even harder. He swallowed back the lump in his throat, pushing down the fear that this would be the last time he’d see her. 

Mrs. Moore cleared her throat. The Doctor pasted a smile on his face and spun around. “Mrs. Moore! Are you ready for our adventure?”

 


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Thanks to the Doctor, the pounding in Rose’s head had subsided to a dull ache, and she was able to run behind Pete toward the factory, ducking as low as she could to avoid detection. From inside the building, robotic voices announced which chambers were open, and she shuddered at the term “human upgrading.”

They got as close as possible and then hid behind a burned out wall. “Just put them on,” Pete said, pulling his dummy ear pods out of his pocket. “Don’t show any emotion. No signs, nothing. Okay?”

Rose took a deep breath and put her own ear pods on. “Don’t worry. We can do it,” she said.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Pete staring at her, his eyebrows drawn together in confusion. “We could die in here. Why are you doing this?”

“Let’s just say I’m doing it for my mum and dad,” Rose said truthfully. “Right, let’s go.”

They stood up slowly from their hiding place and walked toward the line. Cybermen marched lock step behind them, their metal feet clanging against the road. Pete squeezed Rose’s hand once in encouragement, and then they were on.

Rose could feel herself perspiring through the cheap polyester dress as they approached the factory door. Her body’s natural inclination to tense up in fear played in her favour, giving her the same stiff gait as those programmed by their ear pods.

The bluish light inside the factory felt cold and ominous, a sensation strengthened by the robotic voices directing humans to conversion chambers. “Units upgraded now six thousand five hundred. Repeat. Six thousand five hundred and rising,” a Cyberman announced. Rose blew her breath out as slowly and naturally as she could; hyperventilating in fear would be a dead giveaway.

She and Pete followed the line as it moved toward huge cylinders. _Those must be the conversion chambers._ Her palms were sweaty now too, but she didn’t dare wipe them off on her dress, afraid the motion would catch the eye of a Cyberman.

The thought had barely crossed her mind when a metal arm stopped her in her tracks. “You will wait,” the Cyberman commanded, and then walked away.

“You okay?” Pete muttered.

“No,” she answered. _Honestly, how could anyone be okay with this?_

The announcer started again. “Chamber six now open for human upgrading. All reject stock will be incinerated.”

_Reject stock?_ Rose remembered what the Cybermen at the Tyler mansion had called them—rogue elements. _Was that because we ran, or could they tell we weren’t compatible?_ She hadn’t thought her anxiety could climb any higher; apparently, she’d been wrong.

On her left, a woman was led to one of the chambers. Rose swallowed hard as the doors clanged shut after her. The unmistakeable sound of saws buzzed through the air, and she tried not to think about what was happening in there.

Other chambers opened, releasing new Cybermen into the world. “Any sign of Jackie?” Pete asked, and she could hear the terror in his voice now.

A few yards away, a Cyberman stopped and turned toward them. Rose couldn’t hide her flinch and knew it was a dead giveaway to her emotions.

“You are Peter Tyler. Confirm you are Peter Tyler,” it demanded.

“Confirmed,” Pete said, and the steadiness in his voice amazed Rose.

“I recognise you. I went first. My name was Jacqueline Tyler.”

Rose forgot everything about remaining emotionless. “No!” she cried.

“What?” Pete asked, and the tremble in his voice reminded Rose of their perilous position, but it was too late.

“They are unprogrammed. Restrain.”

“You’re lying.” Pete pushed his way past Rose to get closer to the Cyberman. “You’re not her. You’re not my Jackie!”

“No, I am Cyber-form. Once I was Jacqueline Tyler.”

“But you can’t be.” Rose hardly noticed Cybermen grabbing her arms. “Not her.”

“Her brain is inside this body.”

Pete struggled against the Cybermen holding him, trying to get closer to the one who had been his wife. “Jacks, I came to save you.”

The Cyberman who’d been born Jackie Prentice looked at those holding Rose and Pete. “This man worked with Cybus Industries to create our species. He will be rewarded by force. Take them to Cyber Control.”

The Cybermen frog-marched them down the aisle. “They killed her,” Rose said. “They just took her and… killed her.”

“Maybe there’s a chance, I don’t know. Maybe we can reverse it.”

But Rose had seen the look on the Doctor’s face when he’d talked about the Cybermen. “There’s nothing we can do.”

“But if, if she remembers,” he said desperately. “Where is she? Which one was it? Which one was her?”

A line of new victims flooded into the factory, forcing them to stop for a moment. They looked behind them at the thousands of Cybermen. “They all look the same,” Rose said, then the Cybermen holding her pushed on her back, forcing her to move again.

They were led upstairs to a large control room “We found two unprogrammed specimens in with the stock waiting to be converted,” the Cyberman holding Rose announced. “This one worked for Cybus Industries.”

More Cybermen walked in, and with them was the Doctor. He glanced over at them and rolled his eyes. “I’ve been captured, but don’t worry, Rose and Pete are still out there. They can rescue me. Oh well, never mind.”

He sauntered over to her, undoing his bow tie as he walked. “You okay?” he asked in a low voice, his sarcasm completely disappearing.

“No headache,” she answered, trying to smile. “But they got Jackie.”

“We were too late. Lumic killed her,” Pete said.

The Doctor gritted his teeth, but covered it with a smile. “Then where is he, the famous Mr. Lumic?” He looked at the Cybermen all around him “Don’t we get the chance to meet our lord and master?”

A Cyberman on his right answered. “He has been upgraded.”

The futility of it drove his anger higher. “So he’s just like you.”

“He is superior. The Lumic Unit has been designated Cyber Controller.”

The Doctor’s previous experience with Cyber Controllers flashed through his mind. Hydraulic doors opened and a chrome wheelchair rolled out into the room, Lumic in the seat. “This is the Age of Steel and I am its creator.”

The Doctor stared at him for a moment, taking in the visible brain and the crazed glow in the blue eyes. “Look, you were dying, I understand why you’d want to find a way to… preserve your life.” _Such as it is._ “But what about everyone else? Didn’t they deserve a chance to decide for themselves?”

“Flesh is weak,” Lumic retorted. “The average human mind could not see the benefits offered by Cyber-form, so I gave it to them without asking.”

The Doctor pressed his lips into a thin line and looked at the floor to regain control of his temper. His mind worked furiously, trying to find an argument Lumic would agree with, but before he could, alarms sounded and the sound of people screaming filled the factory.

He looked up at the ceiling and grinned. “That’s my friends at work. Good boys! Mr. Lumic, I think that’s a vote for free will.”

But Lumic wasn’t affected by his cheeky wink. “I have factories waiting on seven continents. If the ear pods have failed, then the Cybermen will take humanity by force. London has fallen. So shall the world.”

The Doctor leaned against the work table and crossed his arms, waiting for Lumic to finish his speech. “I will bring peace to the world. Everlasting peace and unity, and uniformity.”

“And imagination?” the Doctor retorted when the Cyber Controller paused. “What about that? The one thing that led you here, imagination, you’re killing it dead.”

“What is your name?”

“I’m the Doctor.”

“A redundant title. Doctors need not exist. Cybermen never sicken.”

The Doctor’s patience was at an end. “Yeah, but that’s it,” he said, taking several steps toward Lumic. “That’s exactly the point!” He rocked back on his heels and sighed. “Oh, Lumic, you’re a clever man. I’d call you a genius, except I’m in the room.”

He felt it then—the soft brush of Rose’s exasperated amusement. The TARDIS cell was recharging faster than he’d anticipated; if he could just get them out of here, they’d be safe as houses.

“But everything you’ve invented, you did to fight your sickness. And that’s brilliant. That is so human. But once you get rid of sickness and mortality, then what’s there to strive for, eh? The Cybermen won’t advance. You’ll just stop. You’ll stay like this forever.” To someone who’d changed his face nine times, the thought of never changing at all, even on the inside, was inconceivable. “A metal Earth with metal men and metal thoughts, lacking the one thing that makes this planet so alive. People. Ordinary, stupid, brilliant people.”

“You are proud of your emotions.”

Lumic’s flat voice drew the Doctor up sharp. He remembered the emotion inhibitor chip he and Mrs. Moore had discovered, and a plan started to form. “Oh, yes.”

“Then tell me, Doctor. Have you known grief, and rage, and pain?”

Images of all the people he’d loved and lost flashed through his mind, starting with Susan and ending with Rose on the floor of the Game Station. “Yes. Yes I have.”

“And they hurt?”

“Oh, yes.” He didn’t bother to disguise the raw pain in his voice, and this time, he felt Rose’s strength bolster him up.

“I could set you free. Would you not want that? A life without pain?”

“You might as well kill me,” he said, surprised by how readily the answer came.

“Then I take that option.”

The Doctor nodded and processed the last few parts of the plan. “It’s not yours to take. You’re a Cyber Controller. You don’t control me or anything with blood in its heart.”

“You have no means of stopping me. I have an army. A species of my own.”

The Doctor ran his hand over his face and started roaming again, needing to create a cover for his very purposeful actions. Rose, he knew, would recognise his behaviour for an act. “You just don’t get it, do you? An army’s nothing. Because those ordinary people, they’re the key. The most ordinary person could change the world.

“Some ordinary man or woman, some idiot.” He looked straight at the camera he’d noticed earlier, trusting that Mickey was watching. “All it takes is for him to find, say, the right numbers. Say the right codes. Say, for example, the code behind the emotional inhibitor. The code right in front of him.”

And it was emotions that gave the Doctor the insight to know that Pete was now onto what he was saying. “Because even an idiot knows how to use computers these days—knows how to get past firewalls and passwords. Knows how to find something encrypted in the Lumic Family Database, under er.” He turned toward Pete, waving a hand at him. “What was it, Pete? Binary what?

Pete shifted his weight from one foot to the other and mumbled into his hand as if he wore a comm link on his wrist. “Binary nine.”

The Doctor leaned against a counter, right behind the seemingly pointless dock he’d noticed earlier. “An idiot could find that code. Cancellation code. And he’d keep on typing. Keep on fighting. Anything to save his friends,” he concluded, looking back up at the camera.

“Your words are irrelevant,” Lumic said, and the Doctor imagined that if he’d had emotions, he would have been exasperated.

He laughed. “Yeah, talk too much, that’s my problem. Lucky I got you that cheap tariff, Rose, for all our long chats. On your phone.”

It really was lucky Cybermen were so inept at sensing emotions, because the atmosphere in the room had changed dramatically in five minutes. When he’d arrived, Rose and Pete had been defeated. Now, they were barely holding in their excitement.

“You will be deleted,” Lumic said.

“Yes. Delete, control, hash. All those lovely buttons. Then, of course, my particular favourite, send.” He mimed pushing a button and continued his ramble. “And let’s not forget how you seduced all those ordinary people in the first place.” Rose’s phone beeped. “By making every bit of technology compatible with everything else.”

“It’s for you,” Rose said and tossed him the phone.

He caught it easily. “Like this,” he said, and slammed it down into the docking station. The phone connected to the Cybermen’s neural network and transmitted the cancellation code for the emotion inhibitor to every Cyberman instantaneously.

Every Cyberman in the room screeched and clutched its head in agony. Beside the Doctor, one caught sight of its reflection in the chrome, and he could hear the horror in the mechanical squeals.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

Lumic glared at him. “What have you done?”

“I gave them back their souls.” The Doctor grabbed the phone  from the dock and tossed it to Rose as they ran toward the door. “They can see what you’ve done, Lumic, and it’s killing them!” Behind them, Lumic called for their deletion, but he didn’t have any Cybermen left who could carry out his orders.

Outside the control room, the factory was in chaos. Overwhelmed Cybermen were exploding into flame, catching combustible materials on fire. The Doctor ran for the emergency exit, but a group of writhing Cybermen blocked their path.

“There’s no way out!”

A faint chiming sounded over the din, and the Doctor saw Rose raise her phone to her ear. “It’s Mickey,” she said a moment later. “He says head for the roof.”

_Of course, the zeppelin!_ The Doctor mentally repented of every time he’d called Mickey an idiot as he followed Rose up a metal staircase, Pete hot on his heels. Around them, debris continued to fall, but he held out hope that they’d reach the zeppelin in time.

They burst out of the factory, the cool night air a welcome relief after the inferno inside. The zeppelin hovered over the building, and the Doctor marvelled at the iron nerves it took to hold a balloon filled with hydrogen that close to a fire.

“Mickey, where’d you learn to fly that thing?” Rose hollered as they raced closer.

The Doctor watched in some concern as the zeppelin dropped even lower. “Any closer and he’ll crush us,” he muttered, but before he could ask Rose to tell Mickey to give up, the zeppelin regained some altitude and a rope ladder dropped in from of them.

“You’ve got to be kidding,” Pete exclaimed.

“Rose, get up.”

They climbed the ladder as the zeppelin took off. “We did it! We did it!” Rose shouted.

Oh, and he wished people would stop declaring their victory before it was certain, because as soon as Rose said that, something heavy yanked on the ladder. The sudden motion threw them all off balance, and as they hung precariously from the ladder, he saw Lumic climbing after them.

Shaking his head, the Doctor pulled the sonic from his pocket and handed it to Pete. “Pete! Take this! Use it! Hold the button down! Press it against the rope. Just do it!”

Pete pressed the sonic to the rope and it glowed blue. “Jackie Tyler. This is for her!” he shouted. The rope gave way and Lumic fell with a shout from his lips and vindictive laughter from Pete’s.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

A few hours later, the Doctor ran to the TARDIS, his key already out. Rose walked with Pete at a slower pace. “So, what happens inside that thing then?” he asked

The TARDIS lights came on and Rose felt her familiar song in her head, along with the Doctor’s joy and relief. “Do you want to see?”

“No, I don’t think so. But you two, you know, all that stuff you said about different worlds. Who are you?”

Rose drew a deep breath. She’d lied to him all night, and she couldn’t do it anymore. “It’s like you say. Imagine there are different worlds, parallel worlds. Worlds with another Pete Tyler and Jackie Tyler’s still alive…” She paused for a moment and then plunged on ahead. “And their daughter.”

She saw the exact moment comprehension dawned in his eyes, but instead of the acceptance she’d hoped for, all she saw was grief. He broke eye contact and shook his head. “I’ve got to go.”

“But if you just look inside,” she begged, wanting him to see something of her life.

Pete pressed his lips together and shook his head. “No, I can’t. There’s all those Lumic factories out there. All those Cybermen still in storage. Someone’s got to tell the authorities what happened, carry on the fight.”

The Doctor stuck his head out of the TARDIS. “Rose?” Spotting them, he jogged over. “We’ve only got five minutes of power. We’ve got to go.”

A lump grew in the back of Rose’s throat. _How many girls lose their dad three times?_ “The Doctor could show you.”

“Thank you, for everything,” Pete said, still not addressing her request.

The word escaped her lips before she could pull it back. “Dad…”

Pete drew back, his expression pained, and she remembered what he’d told her at the party before the Cybermen arrived. He’d wanted kids but his Jackie had refused. “Don’t. Just… just don’t,” he told her, and walked away.

Rose blinked back her tears. The Doctor and the TARDIS both tried to soothe her heart, but their compassion wouldn’t bring back her dad, or make the parallel him love her.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Mickey and Jake coming down the road. “Here it is,” Mickey said, holding out the Doctor’s suit and coat. “I found it. Not a crease.”

The Doctor grabbed his clothes eagerly, and Rose resented the way he latched onto something so mundane when she needed him. “My suit! Good man. Now then, Jake, we’ve got to run. But one more thing. Mrs. Moore. Her real name was Angela Price. She’s got a husband out there, and children. Find them. Tell them how she died saving the world.”

Jake smiled. “Yeah, course I will.”

The Doctor nodded, then turned to Rose and Mickey. “Off we go then.”

“Er, thing is, I’m staying,” Mickey stammered out, and the dizziness Rose had never quite shaken disappeared.

“You’re doing what?” the Doctor asked, but Rose knew he wasn’t actually surprised. She’d known, they’d both known he was considering it. This… this hadn’t been right before, but now it needed to happen.

“Your gran?” she asked, already knowing the answer.

He nodded, tears in his eyes. “It sort of balances out, because this world lost its Ricky, but there’s me. And there’s work to be done with all those Cybermen still out there.”

She wanted to rail at him, to insist that she needed him, but that sense of rightness wouldn’t let her. “We’ll come back. We can travel anywhere. Come and see you, yeah?”

“We can’t,” the Doctor interrupted. “I told you, travel between parallel worlds is impossible. We only got here by accident. We, we fell through a crack in time. When we leave, I’ve got to close it. We can’t ever return,” he said, and Rose knew he wanted Mickey to understand the choice he was making.

Mickey looked at them both, and for a moment Rose thought he might change his mind. Then he held out his hand, and the Doctor shook it. “Doctor.”

Rose wiped tears from her eyes, trying to stay strong.

“Take Rose’s phone. It’s got the code. Get it out there. Stop those factories. And good luck, Mickey the idiot,” he said, patting him affectionately on the cheek.

Rose handed Mickey the phone, and then looked at the Doctor. “Doctor, can we have a mo?” she asked. He looked at her, then nodded and stepped back into the TARDIS.

And then she was alone with her oldest mate for what would be the last time in their lives. Heedless of Jake looking on, she threw herself into his arms. “What if I need you?” she whispered into his neck.

Mickey sighed and pulled back. “Yeah, but Rose, you don’t. It’s just you and him, isn’t it? We had something a long time ago, but not anymore.”

Rose looked back at the TARDIS. Mickey was right, and she knew it. “I’m gonna miss you.”

He smiled. “We’ve had a laugh though, haven’t we? Seen it all, been there and back. Who would have thought, me and you off the old estate, flying through the stars.”

Rose looked at him, trying to memorise every detail of how he looked right now. “All those years just sitting there, imagining what we’d do one day. We never saw this, did we?”

Mickey shook his head and she saw his Adam’s apple bob. “Go on, don’t miss your flight,” he said, his voice rough with unshed tears.

She hugged him once more and then ran to the TARDIS, knowing she’d stop if she went any slower. As soon as the door closed behind her, the Doctor started the dematerialisation sequence. Rose fell to the floor as the time rotor started its slow up-and-down chug.

The Doctor sat down beside her and wrapped an arm around her. She leaned into him as he rubbed a hand up and down her arm in a comforting motion.

“We’re in the Vortex for now, but as soon as you’re ready, I’ll set the coordinates for the Powell Estate. You just say the word.”

Rose nodded. “Can I just change my clothes first? I’ve been in this maid costume for hours.”

“Yep, soon as you’re back we’ll go see Jackie.” He stood up and then pulled Rose up, catching her by surprise when he wrapped her in a quick hug before sending her down the corridor.

In her room, Rose put on the first clothes she grabbed and then jogged back to the control room without even checking her appearance in the mirror. She’d talked to the parallel Jackie, and then the Cyberman she’d become, and she suddenly needed to see her mum more than anything in the world.

The Doctor flipped the lever as soon as he saw her. The landing was so smooth she barely felt it. “Should be in your living room,” he said softly, and she pushed the door open.

Her mum stood in the kitchen doorway, a pleased smile on her face. It was all so familiar, Rose could hardly stand it. “You’re alive,” she mumbled as she grabbed onto her, not caring how crazy it sounded. “Oh mum, you’re alive.”

Her mum patted her on the back as Rose clung to her. “Well I was the last time I looked. What is it? What’s happened, sweetheart? What’s wrong? Where did you go?”

“Far away,” the Doctor replied. “That was… far away.”

“Where’s Mickey?” she asked, and Rose just buried her face in her mum’s hair, letting the Doctor answer.

“He’s gone home.”


	16. Chapter 16

Jackie sat wide-eyed as Rose explained where they’d just been. The Doctor kept quiet for the most part, only interjecting when Rose started crying again.

“You met Pete?” Jackie questioned faintly when they got to that part of the story.

Rose wiped the fresh tears from her eyes. “Yeah, but he wasn’t… I mean he was like Dad, but he wasn’t Dad,” Rose said.

The Doctor still saw the longing on Jackie’s face, and it hit him suddenly that though Jackie had certainly dated several men, Rose had never indicated she’d had any long-term relationships after Pete’s death. His perception of Jackie Tyler shifted just slightly—not better or worse, but different.

“I said,” the woman in question half-yelled, yanking him back to the present, “would you like to stay for tea?”

“Oh!” The Doctor glanced at Rose, but her face was pressed into the arm of the sofa she’d curled up against. Still, he could easily tell what she wanted. “Actually, Jackie, I think we’ll stay for a night or two, if that’s all right.” Rose tilted her head back and her warm smile was all the thanks he needed.

“Of course!” Jackie said and went into the kitchen. “If that’s all right,” he heard her muttering as she put the meal together. “I hardly ever see my daughter and he asks if she’s all right if she stays for a visit.”

Rose snickered. “I think you made Mum happy.”

“My sole reason for being.”

She shoved him with her elbow. “Why don’t you go put the TARDIS somewhere else? It’s gonna be hard to watch telly tonight if it’s parked between the sofa and the TV.”

By the time tea was over, the levels of domesticity he’d been exposed to made the Doctor itch. He couldn’t help but remember what Rose had said in the cab about bringing boys home to meet her dad. This felt far too much like a visit to the in-laws.

“Thank you, Jackie. I should really be getting back to the TARDIS now.”

“Oh, aren’t you going to stay? There’s an EastEnders marathon on tonight, and I know you’ve missed a lot.”

The Doctor rubbed at the back of his neck. “No, sorry, there’s too much work to do on the TARDIS. Spending twenty four hours in a parallel world really did a number on her systems.” It wasn’t a lie—there were things he could do around the ship—it just wasn’t the whole truth.

Jackie raised an eyebrow, but for once didn’t put up a fuss. Before he could make good his escape, Rose stepped up and wrapped her arms around him. “Thank you,” she whispered, and despite his eagerness to get away, he automatically returned the hug.

The Doctor tossed his coat and jacket over a coral strut as soon as he walked in the door. “Let’s get you back in tiptop shape,” he told his ship as he rolled his shirt sleeves up. The TARIDS hummed a little and nudged him in the right direction.

He felt more in the back of his mind, of course he did. As soon as they’d returned to this side of the void, his connection with Rose had reasserted itself. But if he kept himself busy, focused on something else, he could pretend she wasn’t there, always, that lovely pink and gold presence on the edge of his mind.

The sonic screwdriver loosened the screws holding the deck panel in place, and the Doctor lowered himself under the console. His eyes widened when he saw the state of affairs. Several of the wires were fried; it was a miracle they’d made it to London without crash landing. _I’m sorry old girl,_ he told her, running a hand over the central column before hoisting himself back up into the console room to retrieve his tools.

He felt a hint of sorrow, just an edge of something deeper than sadness. Rose’s face when she’d closed the TARDIS door in the parallel world flashed into his memory, and he knew she was telling her mother more about what had happened.

His hand clenched around the hydrospanner he’d picked up. Two completely divergent instincts were driving him. One told him to go back into the flat and try to comfort her as best he could. Rose needed him. But at the same time, he wanted to run as far away as possible. He didn’t mind feeling what she was feeling; it was the knowledge that she could do the same that sent fear down his spine.

Shaking his head, the Doctor dropped back below the console and started work on the repairs. He wouldn’t run to her or away from her; he’d just stay right here where he was somewhat safe.

The TARDIS, he knew, was none too pleased to be used as a distraction. She didn’t think there was anything wrong with her two occupants being linked like this. With the skill of a telepathic being, she carefully peeled back the layers of emotion coming from Rose to reveal the one he tried so hard not to think about.

“I know she loves me,” he growled as he switched to the chronoadaptable awl. _And she knows I love her—that’s the problem._ It had been easier to shove his feelings for Rose into a bottle before he knew she could sense them herself. He’d never heard of something like this, except between couples joined by a marriage bond… and that parallel didn’t exactly ease his discomfort with the idea.

He scowled at the TARDIS as he finished up the last of the repairs. _This was your doing,_ he accused her. _Oh, look into my heart, Rose. Take on the whole Vortex, Rose. It will kill you and turn you into something not entirely human, but don’t mind that. Let’s go save my Time Lord from himself._ She didn’t deign to reply.

“Right,” he said, lifting himself back up onto the grating and turning his scanners on. He read the various system reports quickly, pleased to see they all read normal. Then he realised it was still just 10:00 PM London time, which meant hours and hours of waiting around and thinking.

“Let’s see if we can find something to do, shall we?” he suggested to the TARDIS. He ignored her reluctance just like she’d ignored his earlier petulance and scanned the nearby timelines for some sort of alien activity.

There was nothing in the immediate vicinity, but somewhere back in the mid-eighties he spotted a fluctuation. “Hang on, what’s that?” He peered more closely at the screen. “Is that a shadow? How did it escape the Howling Hells?”

Elemental shades were the real life basis of the mythological shades. Unlike their fictional counterparts, they weren’t beings trapped in the shadowlands between life and the afterlife. Instead, they trapped their _victims_ between life and death, in an endless purgatory of pain. Most shadows had been banished to the Howling Hells eons ago, but one must have escaped somehow.

Noting the date, he set the coordinates as precisely as possible, ignoring the TARDIS’s protest. She shook and rattled as they traveled back twenty-five-odd years and a few miles away from the Powell estate, but they made it in one piece.

He didn’t understand her reluctance; a shade loose in London could wreak havoc on Earth. The Doctor stepped out into the dark park, sonic out scanning for the shade. “Gotcha,” he muttered when the sonic beeped loudly as he pointed it at a house across the street.

The house was dark, except for a single dim light he assumed came from the hallway or a bathroom. A quick glance down the street ensured no one was watching, and he used the sonic to unlock the door.

He felt the chill of the shade’s presence the moment he entered the house. Sniffing the air, he followed the scent from the entryway into the living room. A muffled scream drew him to a dark corner near the couch, where the shade had already taken a victim.

Dropping the woman, it turned to the Doctor, but he was ready. Before leaving the TARDIS, he’d adjusted one of the settings on the screwdriver, and he pointed it at the monster. The frequency was inaudible to his own ears, but sent the shade shrieking in agony. A moment later, it disintegrated.

He turned around a moment later, not even knowing exactly why. Then he spotted the small boy, coming down the stairs. Anger and pity mixed together, and he looked at the child who’d just lost his mother. “I’m sorry,” he whispered, then left the house.

Back on the TARDIS, he drew several deep, calming breaths. That hadn’t exactly been a pleasant diversion, but at least it had kept his mind busy and distracted from Rose for a few hours.

“All right old girl, let’s go back to London, 2007,” he murmured. “How about five o’clock in the morning? We can pop out and get breakfast before going up to the flat.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

After the Doctor left, Rose curled up next to her mum. “I’m glad we came to see you,” she mumbled.

Jackie stroked her head, running her fingers through Rose’s hair like she had when she was upset as a child. “I am too, sweetheart, and I’m thankful himself thought of it. He seems to have finally gotten his head out of his arse.”

Disquiet stole over Rose; she had enough experience by now to know it had originated with the Doctor and that she was responding to it. Her instinct was to send a wave of calm reassurance to him, but given how uncomfortable their connection made him, she suspected that would have the opposite effect.

She glanced at her mum and realised she expected her to agree with this praise of the Doctor. “Yeah, maybe,” she said noncommittally.

“What do you mean, maybe? You told me about the last time you saw your father. Did the last him bring you home after that?”

Something nagged at the back of Rose’s mind, another parallel to that trip. _What is it?_ Instead of answering her mother, she dug around in her memory, trying to put her finger on it. It had been months since she’d really thought about meeting her dad (unless you counted the last few days),and it took a few minutes to unpack the memories.

When she found what was bothering her, the unease she felt was all her own. The way the Doctor had just left the flat after dinner, as if he couldn’t wait to get away… there’d been no hurtful words exchanged, no threat to leave her behind, but his withdrawal had been just as complete.

 _And just like before we went to the parallel world when he disappeared into the TARDIS._ The Doctor ran when emotions got to be too much; it was what he did.

Casually as she could, Rose got up and walked to the window. The TARDIS was still sitting on the street corner below, reassuring and familiar and blue.

“Rose, I asked you a question.”

Rose let the curtain flutter back into place and turned back around. “I’m sorry, Mum. I’m still feeling a little… it is all right if I go to bed?”

Jackie stood and hugged her tight. “Of course it is, sweetheart. You get some sleep.”

Rose woke the next morning with a dull headache. She groaned and pressed her hand to her forehead as she got up and walked to the medicine cabinet to root around for some pain reliever. “I thought I was done with this once I had the TARIDS in my head again,” she grumbled.

The exact nature of the pain struck her then, and she dropped the aspirin and ran for the door, tearing down the stairs in her sleep shorts and vest top. Her lungs seized up when she saw the empty street corner.

The TARDIS was gone.

Jackie met her on the landing as she shuffled back inside. “What was all that racket for?” Rose walked past her into the flat without saying a word. “Rose? What’s wrong, sweetheart?”

Rose pointed to the window and sank onto the sofa. She barely heard her mother’s exclamation, trying to focus on feeling the TARDIS somewhere in her mind.

“Maybe he’s just run out for some food,” Jackie suggested.

Rose looked at her in disbelief. “What, he took the TARDIS to Tesco’s? ‘Don’t mind my blue box, I’m just picking up milk and eggs—ooooh, you have bananas on sale!’”

“No need to get shirty.”

Rose opened her mouth to yell, but then she felt it. The smallest hint of relief from her headache, like the connection to the TARDIS wasn’t completely broken, just stretched as far as it could go. _And come to think of it, what is the limit of this?_ she wondered.

At any rate, now she knew what had happened—at least, she had a pretty good idea. “Oh, that coward,” she muttered.

“What are you talking about, Rose?”

“He’s not gone, Mum.” Rose picked up a pillow and punched at it. “And he didn’t pop out to the store. He got restless and went looking for trouble without me.”

Jackie cottoned on right away. “And who knows when he’ll get back, horrible driver that he is.”

“Yeah, exactly.”

The Tyler women sat on the sofa thinking for a minute, then Jackie nodded with determination and stood up. “Well, if we’re up, I’m going to make breakfast. Are you in the mood for a fry-up, Rose?”

Rose nodded, but stayed on the sofa brooding while Jackie fixed breakfast. By the time the food was ready, her mood was foul.

“I am sick of this,” she said, gesturing with her juice glass. “He keeps doing this one step forward, two steps back thing. Being in the parallel world was hard, but it was also nice because he was more open about stuff. But then last night he took off as soon as he could.”

“You’re sick of… You mean he’s done this before? Gone off somewhere to pout and left you on our own? Oh, I’m gonna smack him so hard the big-eared him will feel it.”

“No no,” Rose said hastily. “This is the first time he’s done anything like this. Before he’s just… wandered off by himself to a different part of the TARDIS.” _And didn’t show his face for a week._

Jackie’s brow furrowed. “But Rose, if he hasn’t done this before, how do you know he’s not gone for good?”

Rose chewed on a piece of toast while considering her answer. She really didn’t want to tell her mum about her connection to the TARDIS or the Doctor. In the end, she opted for a stripped down version of the truth. “S’the TARDIS,” she said after taking a sip of tea. “I guess after what I did last year, I can kinda tell when she’s close. I don’t think he went far—probably only a couple decades forward or back. And if he was leaving, he wouldn’t stay in London at all.”

Jackie shook her head. “I swear Rose, I don’t understand this mad life of yours.”

“I love it,” Rose protested.

“Except when himself leaves you to pout by himself.”

“Yeah,” Rose admitted. “And it’s been happening more often lately. I get that he might need time to himself after a stressful day. But sometimes we have a really nice day, and then he just… disappears. I know—” She bit her lip; she’d almost slipped and told her mum about their connection. “It hurts, Mum, not knowing if he’ll be the bubbly, happy Doctor, or if he’s gonna be more broody than the last him.”

“How long’ve you felt this way then?” her mum asked.

Rose thought back over the last four months with the Doctor and realised this wasn’t exactly a new pattern, though it had certainly gotten worse since the TARDIS had connected them. He’d done it before too though, given her a huge hug and a flirty smile after one of their adventures and then barely talked to her for days after to compensate.

“Dunno… maybe since Christmas?”

“Oh, love. If it bothers you that much, you need to talk to him.”

“I know, but…”

“But what? I’d love to hear what kind of reason you’ve come up with in that head of yours, because this—not bein’ honest when you’re upset—it’s not like you, Rose.”

Rose stood and began clearing the table, needing something to do. “S’just, I like traveling with him. I mean, I love him, but I really like the traveling.” She glanced back up at her mum. “I couldn’t stand to live a regular life again, I’m sorry Mum but I couldn’t.”

“I know that, Rose.” Mother and daughter were silent for a moment. “Hold on now, do you think he might kick you out if you confronted him?” Rose shrugged, and Jackie sighed. “C’mon, let’s sit down in the living room. The washing up will wait.”

Jackie took Rose by the hand and led her out of the kitchen. Once they were seated on the couch, she brushed a strand of hair out of Rose’s eyes and smiled at her. “I don’t pretend to know what’s going on in his mind, but there’s no way he’s going to kick you out, Rose.”

“But what if he does?” Rose picked at a frayed bit of the upholstery. “What if one day, running away isn’t enough and he decides the easiest way to ignore me is to just leave me behind?”

Jackie shook her head. “I don’t think he’d know what to do without you, Rose. What’s more, I think he knows it and that’s what scares him so much.” Her face set in the scowl Rose was so familiar with. “Now, when he comes back, I promise you I’ll make him regret running like this. But you know he wasn’t trying to leave you behind. He just thought he’d get some space, and since you’ve been letting him get away with that…”

Rose began to protest, but Jackie held up her hand.  “You can’t be upset with him for not talking about something if you’ve been pretending it doesn’t bother you.”

“What do I say to him, Mum?”

“That’s really up to you, sweetheart. Start by figuring out what hurts most, and then tell him what you expect him to do about it.”

It was midday when Rose heard the distinctive sound of the TARDIS. Exhaustion forgotten, she jumped to her feet and ran down the stairs as fast as she could. She whipped the key from around her neck as she ran across the street. The TARDIS solidified just as she reached it, and she slipped the key into the lock and pushed the door open.

“Oh, hello!” the Doctor said. “I didn’t expect to see you so early.”

“So… early?” Rose sputtered. “You’ve been gone all day!”

“Nah, I can’t have. Look, I set the coordinates for 5:00…” He gulped. “15:00—3:00 in the afternoon. Oh Rose, I am so sorry. I only nipped back to the eighties to take care of a shade. I swear I meant to be back before breakfast.”

Rose swallowed down her angry retort and walked past him toward the galley without saying a word. She could hear him following her, could feel his anxiety building with every step. As soon as she’d flicked the kettle on and turned to face him, a torrent of apologies poured out of him.

“I am so sorry, Rose,” he said. “I had no idea… I had no intention of you even knowing I’d gone. I mean, I would have told you, of course I would have told you—it was a bit of an adventure, though not one so big you’d feel left out. There was a shade back in 1986 and I needed to take care of it. I had to, or it would have destroyed a good portion of London and even the Earth in the late 80s, and I happen to be very protective of that bit of time and space.”

The allusion was clear, but Rose didn’t return his hopeful smile. He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing hard, and panic eddied through him.

“You know I didn’t… that I wouldn’t…”

The kettle clicked off and Rose tossed teabags into their cups. “You know,” she said almost conversationally as she poured the water, “you’re lucky I could still feel the TARDIS, or I’d have thought you’d done a runner. Did for a few minutes, actually.”

He made a noise of protest in the back of his throat. “You thought I’d just leave you, without even saying good bye? I thought you knew…”

The words, “What you mean to me,” hung in the air, understood by both. “I said you could spend the rest of your life with me,” he said instead.

Rose laughed harshly. “Right, and you’ve been pulling back ever since. You even sent me to make tea so you could get rid of me after you got back from France.” She felt his guilt and knew she’d been right that night. “How was I supposed to know you didn’t regret that promise? Maybe you want to get rid of me. Maybe I should just stay here.”

The Doctor’s white hot agony took her by surprise, and she drew in a quick breath. “It’s not what I want,” she quickly continued, “but all this time, I’ve been keeping quiet because I was afraid you’d leave me behind if I said anything. Well, now I know I can take it if you do, so we’re going to talk. What do you need so desperately that you couldn’t even stay put for one night, Doctor?”

She could feel the fear and panic swirling within the Doctor as he struggled to answer her question. Before, she would have rushed to ease the awkward silence, not wanting the Doctor to feel pressured. Today, she calmly fixed both his tea and hers to their liking and then sat down across from him to wait.

“Distance,” he finally whispered. “You’re… you’re always there. You can see… I can’t hide from you, not in here,” he said, tapping the side of his head.

Rose handed him his cup and leaned against the cabinets. “You feel naked, exposed, like the deepest parts of yourself don’t belong just to you anymore?”

He started. “How did you… Oh.”

“Finally catching on, are we? And I thought Time Lords were supposed to have such big brains.”

He ran a hand through his hair. “I never thought… didn’t realise…”

“We both know there’s something here that… that you’re not ready to talk about yet,” she said, choosing her words carefully. She wanted to be clear, but she didn’t want him to panic again. The Doctor’s chair squeaked a little as he shifted around, and Rose smiled at him. “I’m not gonna insist you do, or push the issue. I…” She bit her lip, then decided to put all her cards on the table. “I wanna be with you, Doctor, but not until you’re ready.”

His emotions were a miasma of love, relief, panic, and that claustrophobic feeling she’d picked up on before. Rose took his hand and squeezed gently. The gesture centred him, and his breathing evened out. “Hey, I promise, I’m not gonna push.”

Once she felt like he’d calmed down again, she took a deep breath and plunged into the more important part of her planned speech. “But when you act the way you did in the parallel world, or when you look at me like…” She broke off and looked away. “It makes me think maybe you are ready. You keep getting my hopes up, Doctor, and then you run away again.”

“Rose… I am so sorry.” She felt his guilt and shame, but she tamped down the instinct to pretend what he’d done hadn’t been that bad. “I want… I wish I could…” He swallowed hard. “But one day…”

She remembered the wither and die conversation then, and the picture because more clear. “I know, and I won’t pretend to understand what that feels like, Doctor.”

A thought occurred to her, and she raised an eyebrow. “Except I do. Every time you pull back, it feels like I’ve lost you. I’ve lost you so many times, and you’re right here in front of me.”

Rose drew in a breath and steeled herself against the protests her next statement was likely to get. “You pull back to protect yourself, so I’m gonna do the same. I love you.” She ignored his joy and indrawn breath. “I need you to make a choice though. No more cuddling together in the library or media room. No more long hugs that are just an excuse to hold each other. No more flirting until it actually means something. Those are couple things, and you’ve made it clear we’re not a couple.”

She could almost taste how much he wanted to protest, how much he hated the thought of losing what little connection he’d allowed to grow between them. This standing on the line between being just friends and being more than friends hurt too much. Someone had to define the relationship, and apparently, it wasn’t going to be him.

She looked him in the eye. “But if you change your mind…”

The offer lingering in the air made the Doctor gulp. “You’ll be the first to know,” he promised quietly.”


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After his unfortunate misstep, the Doctor offers to take Rose anywhere she'd like to go. She asks for Elvis, but predictably, things don't go according to plan. Idiot's Lantern, part 1.

Jackie didn’t yell at him, much to his surprise. After delivering the smack he’d expected, she said, “I know all about your bad driving,” and that was that.

They spent the week in London, and this time the Doctor stayed in the flat, kipping on the sofa. The distrust stung, but he had to admit he deserved it. The morning he and Rose had decided to leave, he took both ladies out for breakfast before he and Rose returned to the TARDIS.

The Doctor watched Rose settle into the jump seat as he took the TARDIS into the vortex. Seeing her here soothed an ache he hadn’t known he had. Her claim last week that she could live without him had hurt more than he’d thought. For a moment, he’d thought she’d decided to stay in London.

_Which she would have had every reason for,_ he quickly added when the TARDIS flashed a warning in his mind. His ship still hadn’t forgiven him for hurting Rose; he hadn’t forgiven himself.

“Doctor, don’t do this,” she said quietly.

He looked at her from across the console. “How can you possibly forgive me?”

She shrugged. “Because I know you didn’t mean to. Because I know you always mean well. Because I know someone needs to, and I know you won’t.”

He shook his head. “Rose… all those things you said before…”

She uncrossed her legs and leaned back in the jump seat. “I’m still mad,” she admitted. “It’s gonna be hard to trust you again. I know you won’t leave, but…”

Her words trailed off, and a fist closed around the Doctor’s heart. He’d never thought how his mood swings might feel to her, and when she’d told him last week that it felt like she’d lost him over and over again, every time he retreated… Well, he knew what loss felt like and it made him sick to think he’d done that to Rose.

“Tell you what,” he said, putting as much brightness in his voice as possible. “The TARDIS really wants to float in the vortex for a while, just to get used to being in our universe again. Why don’t we take it easy for a few days, hang out at home while she finishes healing?”

It sounded like a brilliant idea—give Rose time to relax at home and see he really had changed. But he’d forgotten her dictate about no cuddling. Movie marathons weren’t nearly as enjoyable without Rose curled up beside him. The same was true in the library. Before everything changed, before the werewolf, reading together had been a favourite pastime of theirs. Rose would stretch out with her head in his lap while the Doctor combed his fingers through her hair while reading aloud.

It had really been a long time since they’d treated each other like just friends, he realised after a few days. All the intimacy he’d fought against was already there… or it had been, until Rose had gotten tired of him running from it.

And he missed it. He missed the way she smiled at him, the way she leaned against him, the way she laughed when he tickled her until she could hardly breathe. He just missed being with Rose.

After a week, he was seriously considering waving a white flag. He didn’t know how many more days without Rose he could handle… and it was that uncertainty that kept him from saying anything. Because if he was lost without her now, when all the intimacy they’d shared was fairly innocent, how much worse would it feel if he finally let go and allowed them to become more?

On the eighth day, Rose hopped up into the jump seat and smiled at him. “I don’t know about you,” she said, “but I’m gonna go barmy if I have to spend another day cooped up in here.” She ran a hand over the railing and the TARDIS hummed in understanding. “Take me someplace, Doctor.”

He fiddled with a knob on the console and shot her a smile. “So, is there anyplace you’d like to go?” he asked. “Far-off places, daring sword fights, magic spells…” He wrinkled his brow. “Hang on, that’s _Beauty and the Beast._ ”

Rose raised an eyebrow. “Better hope Disney never finds out how often you quote their movies, or they’ll start making you pay royalties.”

The Doctor waved a hand dismissively. “Naaaaah… Walt and I go way back. Welllllll, way back for me. I suppose he’s dead in your timeline. Ooooh, want to meet Walt Disney, Rose? Anaheim, California, 1955?”

Rose put a hand on his before he could start setting the coordinates. “You still owe me a concert, and I’m collecting. I wanna go see Elvis.”

“Elvis it is. I think you, Miss Tyler, should pay a visit to the wardrobe room. The TARDIS will show you what to wear.”

He stopped in his own room on the way to the control room to change his own clothes. He didn’t often adjust his appearance to match the era they visited, but for this visit, he’d do anything to make Rose smile.

Hair in a pompadour, he started toward the control room and then changed his mind. There was one more thing he could do to make this trip special. A quick detour to the TARDIS’s garage, and then he was finally ready.

In the control room, he punched the coordinates into the TARDIS. _New York City, October 28, 1956._ He double checked that he’d set things properly and then leaned against the console, waiting for Rose.

He was just debating going back to Rose’s room to see if she’d changed her mind when he heard the distinctive click of heels on the floor. The first glimpse of her stole his breath. Pink heels and a voluminous pink skirt…

The Doctor turned quickly to the console, hoping to hide his reaction. With things how they were, he was certain ogling her wouldn’t be welcome “Ready?”

“Yeah.” The odd note in her voice told him she’d picked up on his… attraction, and was having as hard a time ignoring it as he was.

For a fleeting moment he thought maybe he was being ridiculous. Surely being with Rose couldn’t be any harder than staying away from her. Then he remembered the image seared into his brain by the TARDIS of Rose actually dead, and he shook his head quickly.

He pulled the lever and the TARDIS pushed them out of the Vortex to their destination. “Let’s go see Elvis,” he said once they landed.

Rose pushed open the doors and he grabbed the scooter. “I thought we’d be going for the Vegas era, you know the white flares and the, grr, chest hair.”

He stuck his head out the door. “You are kidding, aren’t you? You want to see Elvis, you go for the late fifties. The time before burgers. When they called him the Pelvis and he still had a waist.” Rose giggled, and he relaxed a bit for the first time in a week.

“What’s more, you see him in style.” He drove out of the TARDIS on the scooter, flashing her a grin. “You going my way, doll?” he asked, curling his lip up in an Elvis sneer.

Rose shook her head and put on sunglasses. “Is there any other way to go, daddy-o? Straight from the fridge, man.”

The Doctor grinned and tossed her a pink helmet that matched her outfit. “Hey, you speak the lingo.”

She caught it and moved around to the back of the scooter. “Oh well, me, mum, Cliff Richard movies every Bank Holiday Monday.”

A quip about Jackie rose to his lips, but he bit it back. If Rose hadn’t been upset with him recently… Somehow, he didn’t think she’d take a comment about her mother kindly right now.

“Ready to go?” he said instead, and she wrapped her arms around him.

“Where are we off to?” she asked as they drove down the street.

He’d carefully chosen one of the King’s iconic moments to show Rose. “Ed Sullivan TV Studios. Elvis did Hound Dog on one of the shows. There were loads of complaints. Bit of luck, we’ll just catch it.”

“And that’ll be the TV studios in what, New York?”

“That’s the one,” he affirmed, just as a suspiciously London-looking red bus drove by on the cross street.

A funny feeling crept up in the pit of the Doctor’s stomach as he stopped the scooter to let the bus go through. Now paying attention to their surroundings, he looked to their left and spotted the red Royal Mail post box.

He opened his mouth to apologise, but Rose started laughing. “Digging that New York vibe,” she teased.

“Well, this could still be New York. I mean, this looks very New York to me. Sort of Londony New York, mind,” he muttered, making note to have words with his TARDIS later.

“What are all the flags for?”

He directed his gaze upwards, hoping to see the New York skyline, but instead of the Empire State Building, all he saw was Union Jack bunting strung between the houses. “Let’s go find out,” he suggested, parking on the side of the road.

Back on their feet, they walked down the street toward a group of people standing around a van. “Well I did get the time right, or close,” he pointed out, looking around at the vehicles.

“Sure, you’re just off by a few thousand miles, but at least we’re in the right decade.” The knot in his gut loosened; his mistake seemed to have opened Rose up more than all his attempts to make this trip perfect.

As they approached the people he’d indicated, he realised one man seemed to be handing out new television sets. “There you go sir,” he said, “all wired up for the great occasion.”

“The great occasion?” the Doctor asked, tugging on his ear. “What do you mean?”

The man huffed out a laugh as he closed up his van. “Where’ve you been living, out in the Colonies? Coronation, of course.”

The Doctor rummaged around in his memory for notable coronations in 1956, but he came up blank. “What Coronation’s that then?”

The question stopped the man dead in his tracks, and the Doctor knew he’d put his foot in it somehow.

“What do you mean? _The_ Coronation,” he said, capitalising the C.

He felt Rose’s exasperation before she spoke. “It’s the Queen’s. Queen Elizabeth.”

It was obvious, once she said it. London in the 1950s, with flags flying everywhere. “Oh! Is this 1953?” he said, as if he’d meant to go to High _bury_ but ended up in High _gate_ instead.

“Last time I looked. Time for a lovely bit of pomp and circumstance, what we do best.”

Rose was looking at the rooftops. “Look at all the TV aerials. Looks like everyone’s got one. That’s weird. My nan said tellies were so rare they all had to pile into one house.”

The Doctor walked down the street, taking in the festive atmosphere. “Oh, but this is a brilliant year. Classic! Technicolour, Everest climbed, everything off the ration. The nation throwing off the shadows of war and looking forward to a happier, brighter future.”

Rose couldn’t help but laugh at his exuberance. He was trying so hard to be his regular self, even though she could feel him holding back, trying to treat her like he would any friend travelling with him.

Her laughter was interrupted when a woman down the street started screaming. “Someone help me please! Ted!”

She and the Doctor jogged toward her and saw two men in black suits push a man into the back seat of a waiting car. The man had a blanket over his head, like they were trying to hide his identity.

“Leave him alone! He’s my husband! Please.”

“What’s going on?” the Doctor asked, looking from the woman to the officers.

A teenaged boy came out of a house across the street. “Oi, what are you doing?” he asked.

“Police business,” one of the men said gruffly. “Now, get out of the way sir!”

“Who did they take?” Rose asked the boy. “Do you know him?”

He glanced over Rose’s shoulder at the car. “Must be Mr. Gallagher. It’s happening all over the place. They’re turning into monsters.”

A man popped out of the same house the boy had appeared from. “Tommy! Not one word! Get inside now.”

Tommy sighed. “Sorry, I’d better do as he says.”

The Doctor ran back to the scooter, and Rose was right beside him. “All aboard!” he shouted and they sped after the car.

Ahead of them, the car turned left down a street. The Doctor gunned the engine, and Rose slammed her eyes shut and held onto his waist for dear life. She felt them whip around a corner and bit back a cry when she nearly slipped off the seat.

Finally they rolled to a stop and she opened her eyes. The car was gone. All she saw was a market stall with a man sweeping the street.

The Doctor shook his head. “Lost them. How’d they get away from us?”

Rose slowly released the tight grip she’d had on him. “Surprised they didn’t turn back and arrest you for reckless driving. Have you actually passed your test?”

“Men in black? Vanishing police cars?” he said, ignoring her taunt. “This is Churchill’s England, not Stalin’s Russia.”

Rose looked around the street, but she didn’t see anything that would explain what was going on. Which meant their only clue… “Monsters, that boy said. Maybe we should go ask the neighbours.”

The Doctor glanced at her over his shoulder. “That’s what I like about you. The domestic approach.”

“Thank you,” she said, before catching his sarcasm. “Hold on, is that an insult?” she said. His only answer was to put the scooter back in gear. _Guess he heard my crack about his driving._

They parked in the same spot and started canvassing the neighbourhood. Despite his comment, this was the best lead they had. However, no one seemed to want to talk to them. Some people got angry and shut the door in their faces, and others looked at them in fear before saying they couldn’t tell them anything.

It was night when they reached their starting point, and the last house they hadn’t tried. “Time to pay Tommy a visit,” the Doctor said, placing his hand at the small of Rose’s back as they crossed the street.

They were still in the middle of the street when they heard a man’s raised voice shouting, “I AM TALKING!!”

Rose and the Doctor shared a look “Seems someone in there is upset about something,” he muttered, and they crossed the rest of the way and rang the doorbell.

The man they’d seen earlier swung the door open, his face still a little red from shouting. “Hi!” Rose and the Doctor said in unison, their routine down pat now.

He didn’t seem impressed by their act. “Who are you then?”

This was their last chance, so the Doctor finally did what he should have done from the start. “Let’s see, then. Judging by the look of you, family man, nice house, decent wage, fought in the war, therefore I represent Queen and country,” he said, flashing the psychic paper at the man.

The man gawped at them, and the Doctor had to hide his smirk. “Just doing a little check of Her Forthcoming Majesty’s subjects before the great day. Don’t mind if I come in?” He and Rose shoved past him into the house. “Nah, I didn’t think you did. Thank you.”

Keeping up with the charade, he looked around the living room, noting the flag bunting sitting on a table. A cowed woman stood off to the side, staring at them with wide eyes. “Not bad. Very nice. Very well kept. I’d like to congratulate you, Mrs—? **”**

“Connolly.”

Her husband, who the Doctor had already taken a severe dislike to, interrupted. “Now then, Rita. I can handle this. This gentleman’s a proper representative. Don’t mind the wife, she rattles on a bit.”

Rose sat down primly on the arm of an overstuffed chair. The Doctor looked at the two women, then at Mr. Connolly.  “Well, maybe she should rattle on a bit more. I’m not convinced you’re doing your patriotic duty,” he said, glancing at the bunting. “Nice flags. Why are they not flying?”

Mr. Connolly rocked back on his heels. “There we are Rita, I told you, Get them up. Queen and country.”

The woman started to apologise, but the Doctor hushed her with a gesture and walked toward Mr. Connolly, who was still ordering his wife to hang the flags.

The shiver of disgust that ran through the Doctor was equalled by the anger he sensed radiating from Rose. He narrowed his eyes at Mr. Connolly as he tried to retake control of the conversation. “Hold on a minute.”

“Like the gentleman says,” Mr. Connolly continued, not realising he was being addressed.

“Hold on a minute!” the Doctor repeated, his voice harsher. “You’ve got hands, Mr. Connolly. Two big hands. So why is that your wife’s job?”

Surprise crossed Mr. Connolly’s face. “Well, it’s housework, innit?”

The Doctor was half tempted to let Rose hit him, but he asked her with a glance to let him beat the man at his own game. “And that’s a woman’s job?”

“Of course it is.”

“Mr. Connolly, what gender is the Queen?” Rose’s anger was shot with amusement now.

“She’s female.”

“And are you suggesting the Queen does the housework?” the Doctor asked, putting the right amount of derision and challenge in his voice.

Connolly was trapped by his own words. He obviously revered the monarchy and would never suggest something like that. “No. Not at all.”

The Doctor dropped the bunting into Mr. Connolly’s hands. “Then get busy.”

“Right. Yes sir. You’ll be proud of us, sir.” Putting on the air of a government official satisfied his orders would be carried out, the Doctor turned away from Mr. Connolly as the man continued rattling on. “We’ll have Union Jacks left, right and centre.”

“Excuse me, Mr. Connolly,” Rose said, and the Doctor turned around to watch her put the chauvinist in his place. Connolly had one end of the bunting draped over the light, and he was looking at Rose like a deer caught in the headlights. “Hang on a minute. Union Jacks?”

“Yes. That’s right, isn’t it?”

Rose pounced on the indecision. “That’s the Union Flag,” she corrected sharply. “It’s the Union Jack only when it’s flown at sea.”

The wind now completely taken out of his sails, Connolly stammered a little. “Oh, oh I’m sorry, I do apologise.”

“Well, don’t get it wrong again, there’s a good man. Now get to it!” Rose swung ‘round to look at the Doctor, and between the fire in her eyes and the way she was biting on her lip, he had a hard time controlling his reaction to her.

“Right then!” he squeaked. “Nice and comfy, at her Majesty’s leisure.” He and Rose sat down side by side on the sofa, and he leaned over to whisper, “Union Flag?”

“Mum went out with a sailor,” Rose explained, and he could still feel her exhilaration at her total defeat of Mr. Connolly.

“Oh ho ho ho. I bet she did.”

Glancing at Mrs. Connolly and Tommy, the Doctor could easily tell no one had ever managed to put the man quite so completely in his place. “Anyway, I’m the Doctor and this is Rose. And you are?” he asked, looking at the teenaged son.

“Tommy,” the boy said, glancing back at his father one more time, as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

“Well, sit yourself down, Tommy,” the Doctor said, patting a chair. He and Mrs. Connolly both sat down, and the four of them looked at the TV. “Have a look at this. I love telly, don’t you?”

“Yeah, I think it’s brilliant.”

“Good man!” Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Mr. Connolly had stopped his work. “Keep working, Mr. C!” Turning back to the more approachable Connollys, he said, “Now, why don’t you tell me what’s wrong?”

Mother and son shared a look, and then Mrs. Connolly leaned forward. “Did you say you were a doctor?”

“Yes, I am,” he said, as reassuringly a possible.

“Can you help her? Oh please, can you help her Doctor?”

“Now then Rita, I don’t think the gentleman needs to know,” Connolly protested, a warning in his voice.

“No, the gentleman does!” the Doctor insisted.

Rose scooted forward. “Tell us what’s wrong, and we can help.” Those words of comfort broke Mrs. Connolly into tears, and Rose rushed to wrap an arm around her. The Doctor watched her comfort the downtrodden woman, pride filling his hearts.

“Hold on a minute.” The Doctor looked back at Mr. Connolly, seeing his face getting redder by the second. “Queen and country’s one thing, but this is my house! What the?” He looked at the bunting in his hand and tossed it down. “What the hell am I doing? Now you listen here, Doctor. You may have fancy qualifications, but what goes on under my roof is my business.”

The Doctor bit back a sigh. “A lot of people are being bundled into—”

“I am talking!”

His patience finally spent, the Doctor got in Mr. Connolly’s face and let him feel the full power of the Oncoming Storm. “And I’m not listening! Now you, Mr. Connolly, you are staring into a deep, dark pit of trouble if you don’t let me help. So I’m ordering you, sir! Tell me what’s going on!”

Fear finally showed in Mr. Connolly’s eyes, but before he could answer, a thumping sounded above them. “She won’t stop,” he mumbled. “She never stops.”

“We started hearing stories, all around the place,” Tommy said, and the Doctor turned to face him. “People who’ve changed. Families keeping it secret because they were scared. Then the police started finding out. We don’t know how, no one does. They just turn up, come to the door and take them, any time of the day or night.”

And now they were getting somewhere. “Show me.”

Tommy led them up the stairs, Mr. Connolly bringing up the rear. The young man pushed a door open. The light was off, but the Doctor could see the silhouette of a woman standing in front of the window.

“Gran? It’s all right, Gran. I’ve brought help.”

Tommy flicked the light on, and the Doctor finally understood what people were so afraid of. He stepped forward until he was just a foot away from her and peered into her eyes—or where her eyes should have been. “Her face is completely gone.”

Dozens of questions leapt to mind. How could a person breathe without a face? And if they didn’t need to breathe, how did they stay alive? What about eating, and drinking? Their ears were intact; could they hear what was going on around them?

He whipped out the sonic and scanned her. “Scarcely an electrical impulse left. Almost complete neural shutdown. She’s ticking over. It’s like her brain has been wiped clean.”

“What’re we going to do, Doctor?” Tommy asked. “We can’t even feed her.”

Before the Doctor could formulate an answer that might calm the fears of the Connolly family, there was a crash downstairs. “We’ve got company,” Rose said.

“It’s them!” Mrs. Connolly moaned. “They’ve come for her.”

Mr. Connolly was smirking in the doorway, and the Doctor had a feeling he knew who’d been telling the police. “Quickly,” he said to Tommy as footsteps pounded up the stairs. “What was she doing before this happened? Where was she? Tell me. Quickly, think!”

Mrs. Connolly froze, and Tommy tried to answer. “I can’t think! She doesn’t leave the house! She was just—”

One of the burly men from the afternoon burst into the room, interrupting Tommy.

The Doctor held his hands up, hoping to forestall the officers. “Hold on a minute. There are three important, brilliant, and complicated reasons why you should listen to me. One—” He barely saw the fist coming through the air before it knocked him out.

When he came to a moment later, he nearly smacked Rose in the head. “Ah, hell of a right hook. Have to watch out for that.”

He ran down the stairs at full pelt, hoping to catch the men this time and follow them to wherever they were taking the people. Mr. Connolly was in the doorway, trying to herd his family back inside, and the Doctor broke past them and ran to the scooter. “Rose, come on!”

Behind him, the Connollys were still bickering in the doorway. Ahead of him, the police were disappearing down the street. “Rose, we’re going to lose them again!” he called out as he snapped on his helmet.

In the back of his mind, he sensed her stubborn determination to stay at the Connollys’. He shook his head and drove off. She might have discovered something there, but if he didn’t follow the police, they’d never learn where the victims were being taken.

The scooter whipped around the corner just in time to see the market stall being wheeled in front of a door. “Oh, very good,” the Doctor said, pulling to a stop. “Very good.”

The sweepers—who he now knew to be policemen—eyed him warily. The Doctor tipped his head slightly. “Impressed by your dedication to your job, gentlemen,” he said and turned around.

Now that he knew where the car went, finding a second entrance would be a piece of cake. He parked at the end of the street and went around on foot, coming back to the area through an alleyway too narrow for vehicles. Ahead of him, he could see the market stall that hid the large garage gate. He couldn’t get through there without drawing attention to himself, but maybe…

His persistence paid off. There was a smaller door in the wall before the street, which the sonic easily opened. He ducked and slipped through it, then followed the sounds of metal clanging against metal until he was in something that looked like a prison yard—a prison yard filled with cages.

A few policemen locked one of the cages shut and then left the yard. As soon as they were out of sight, the Doctor stepped forward and unlocked it. The cage had a second door, and he opened that too.

He adjusted the sonic to the torch setting and shone a light on the people standing in shadow. Just as he’d suspected, none of them had faces. Some of them appeared to be more aware or anxious than others, shifting slightly or clenching their fists. But most were like Tommy’s gran—simply not there.

Except suddenly they were moving toward him as one. For a hearts-stopping moment he wondered if this was the source of all the zombie legends on Earth. Then searchlights flooded the yard, and the faceless people turned away.

The Doctor looked straight into the light. A tall figure was outlined in sharp relief. “Stay where you are,” the man ordered.

“Shall I put my hands up?” he asked, his cheek concealing his anger. These people were being treated like little more than cattle, and he wanted to know why.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Rose started to follow the Doctor out the door, but something caught her eye as she passed by the living room. Around the TV there was a sort of red flash, like an electric current running through it. “Rose, we’re going to lose them again!”

She looked at the door, then back at the television. _I bet anything she was watching telly right before it happened._ Rose took a step toward the television, and the energy crackled once more and then vanished.

Outside, the scooter started up and she knew the Doctor was following the police. _Time to try the domestic approach._ The unit was heavy and unwieldy, but Rose managed to turn it around. On the back, the last vestiges of the red energy continued to crackle.

_Magpie’s Electricals._ She recognised the name from earlier in the day. _Mr. Magpie, I think it’s time for a visit._

The Connollys shuffled back inside. “You!” Mr. Connolly shouted. “Get the hell out of my house!”

“I’m going. I’m done,” Rose said as she got to her feet. “Nice to meet you, Tommy, Mrs Connolly. And as for you, Mr. Connolly,” she directed a sneer at the man, “only an idiot hangs the Union Flag upside down. Shame on you!” The mottled rage rose in his face, so she flashed him her most fake smile and dashed out the door.

Rose recollected seeing Magpie’s address on the side of the van. When she reached the shop, she pushed the door open. Mr. Magpie looked up in surprise, and a little of something else. “Oh, I’m sorry, Miss. I’m afraid you’re too late. I was just about to lock the door.”

“Yeah? Well, I want to buy a telly,” she said, as firm and yet friendly as possible.

Magpie shook his head, and Rose could almost smell the fear rolling off him. “Come back tomorrow, please.”

She feigned confusion, raising a hand to play with her hair. “You’ll be closed, won’t you?”

“What?”

“For the big day? The coronation.”

“Yes, yes, of course. The big day.” More sure than ever that the source of the problems came from here, Rose moved forward confidently. Magpie’s eyes widened, and now Rose knew she was smelling his fear. “I’m sure you’ll find somewhere to watch it. Please go.”

She leaned on the counter in front of him. “Seems to me half of London’s got a television, since you’re practically giving them away.”

“I have my reasons,” he muttered.

“And what are they?”

Before Mr. Magpie could answer, low feedback filled the room. Rose looked to her right and saw static clear from one of the screens to reveal a woman’s face. “Hungry!” she moaned, and a shiver went up Rose’s spine. “Hungry!”

“What’s that?” Rose asked, as calmly as possible.

“It’s just a television,” Magpie said unconvincingly. “One of those modern programs. Now, I really do think you should leave. Right now!”

He tried to herd her toward the door, but Rose wasn’t having it. “Not until you’ve answered my questions. How come’s your televisions are so cheap?”

“It’s my patriotic duty. Seems only right that as many folk as possible get to watch the coronation. We may be losing the Empire but we can still be proud. Twenty million people they reckon’ll be watching. Imagine that.” His national pride was genuine, and Rose got caught up in the patriotism for a moment.

Magpie opened the door and motioned for her to leave. “And twenty million people can’t be wrong, eh, so why don’t you get yourself back home and get up, bright and early, for the big day.”

She shook her head. A telly in 1953 that turned on all by itself? Remote controls wouldn’t be invented for at least another twenty years, so she was curious to know how that had happened.

“Nah, I’m not leaving till I’ve seen everything,” she told Magpie.

“I need to close,” he rejoined desperately.

The fear in his eyes sparked Rose’s compassionate side, and her voice softened. Maybe he didn’t know. “Mr. Magpie, something’s happening out there. Ordinary people are being struck down and changed, and the only new thing in the house is a television. Your television. What’s going on?”

“I knew this would happen. I knew I’d be found out.” He locked the door, and a tremor of unease went through Rose’s stomach.

“All right, then, it’s just you and me,” she said, as soothingly as she could. “You going to come clean, then? What’s really in it for you?”

“For me?” he said, and the quiet despair in his voice scared Rose more than the resolute way he’d closed the door a moment ago. “Perhaps some peace.”

“From what?”

“From her.”

Rose followed his gaze to the television that had turned itself on. “That’s just a woman on the telly. That’s just a program.”

“What a pretty little girl,” the woman cooed.

After all she’d seen, this shouldn’t have surprised her, but somehow it did. “Oh, my God. Are you talking to me?”

“Yes I’m talking to you, little one. Unseasonably chilly for the time of year, don’t you think?”

Rose stared straight into the television, mesmerised by the strange sight. “What are you?”

“I am the Wire, and I’m hungry!”

Energy like she’d seen at the Connollys’ shot out of the screen and grabbed her face. Instinctively, she tightened her mental barriers, trying to protect herself.

“Oh, you’re a clever one,” the Wire said, “but I’m afraid you’ll have to do better than that, my dear.” Another bolt of energy shot into her mind, and her meagre defences slipped.

In the back of her mind, she felt the Doctor panic at her fear, and she wanted to stay calm to keep him calm, but she couldn’t. “Magpie, help me!” she shouted.

“Just think of that audience tomorrow, my dear, all settling down to watch the coronation. Twenty million people. Things will never be the same again.

The TARDIS flared inside her mind, soothing her and giving her an extra measure of strength. “You can’t do this!” she gasped, pulling back on the electrical signature of her mind, trying to keep it with her body. The Wire was stronger than she was though, and she slowly lost the battle.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

“Help me,” she begged one more time, and then she was inside a television unit, looking out at the shop.


	18. Chapter 18

The same beefy man who’d knocked the Doctor out earlier grabbed him by the arm and dragged him out of the cage. “Oi, careful with the suit,” the Doctor protested. “It’s so hard to get wrinkles out.”

He felt it then, a tremor of fear from Rose. The Doctor yanked on his arm, and his panic gave him the strength to get away from his handler and make a run for the wall. The cocking of a pistol stopped him in his tracks; Rose needed him, and regenerating would waste too much time.

“Put your hands up.” The Doctor complied, and seconds later he felt the cold metal of cuffs snap on his wrists. “Now, let’s see if you don’t come more quietly this time.”

The man and one of his friends pushed and shoved the Doctor toward the building that formed the back of the yard. “I don’t know what you’re up to,” the Doctor said, “but if you’ve hurt Rose in any way, if I find one hair on her head out of place, you will wish you’d never been born.”

The captor on his left snorted. “I’ve got no clue who this Rose is, but I’d love to know how you think you could carry out that threat with your hands cuffed behind your back.”

“When it comes to keeping Rose safe, you’d be surprised what I’m capable of.” The Doctor looked at the two men, seeing equally blank looks on their faces. “You honestly have no idea what I’m talking about. Well then, maybe we can help each other.”

In a small office with broken windows, the tall DI from earlier stood behind a desk. The Doctor looked him up and down, taking in everything from the creases in his trousers that spoke of late nights working to the name printed inside his shirt collar.

“Are the cuffs really necessary?” the DI asked his two subordinates.

“He tried to do a runner, sir.”

Meanwhile, the Doctor was getting a clearer picture of what was going on, and the likelihood that the police were investigating the same thing Rose was confronting occurred to him. “Bit of a misunderstanding, really,” he interjected. “My friend is in trouble and I thought your friends had something to do with it. If you’ll uncuff me, Detective, I think I can be of some use to you.”

DI Bishop held his gaze for a long moment, then nodded to his men. The Doctor heard a key click, and then his arms were free. “State your name for the record please,” the detective said as the Doctor rotated his shoulders to alleviate the ache.

“The Doctor.”

“Your name, not your title.”

“I’m the Doctor.”

Bishop eyed him, but apparently decided it wasn’t worth wasting time on. “Start from the beginning. Tell me everything you know.”

Rose’s fear had him on edge, and all the flippancy he normally would have used to charm the DI disappeared. “I think, Detective Inspector Bishop, that you should be telling me everything you know.”

“How do you know my name?”

“It’s written inside your collar. Bless your mum.”

The DI shook his head. “Don’t get clever with me,” he warned, shaking a finger at the Doctor. “You were there today at Florizel Street, and now breaking into this establishment. Now you’re connected with this. Make no mistake.”

The Doctor felt it then—a tearing sensation in his head, as if his connection with Rose had somehow been twisted almost to the point of breaking. His own fear and anger took over, and he jumped to his feet and got right in the face of the police officer. “Oh yes, there’s something going on here. And now my friend is in trouble, and you’re wasting our time questioning me.”

“I’m doing everything in my power,” the man insisted coldly, but his anger couldn’t match the Doctor’s.

“No, you’re not! Grabbing these people, hiding them as fast as you can? That’s not investigating, that’s covering up.” Then he realised. “Don’t tell me, orders from above, hmm? Coronation Day. The eyes of the world are on London Town so any sort of problem just gets swept out of sight.”

DI Bishop shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “The nation has an image to maintain.”

Even through his anger, the Doctor heard the frustration in the other man’s voice. “But doesn’t it drive you mad, doing nothing? Don’t you want to get out there and investigate?” he cajoled. As impatient as he was to go find Rose, he knew helping the DI was his best shot at doing so.

“Of course I do. But,” Bishop sat down finally, “with all the crowds expected, we haven’t got the man power. Even if we did, this is beyond anything we’ve ever seen. I just don’t know anymore.” He hunched onto his desk, stress lining his face. “Twenty years on the force, I don’t even know where to start. We haven’t the faintest clue what’s going on.”

The Doctor mirrored his position, leaning onto the desk and looking the DI in the eye. “Well, that could change,” he offered quietly.

Hope flickered in the police officer’s eye. “How?”

Slowly, the Doctor stood up to his full height. “Start from the beginning. Tell me everything you know.”

He put his glasses on as Bishop led him over to a map on the wall. “We started finding them about a month ago. Persons left sans visage. Heads just… blank.”

The Doctor turned around and picked up the case files on the desk. “Is there any sort of pattern?” he asked, flipping through the files quickly.

“Yes, spreading out from North London. All over the city. Men, women, kids, grannies. The only real lead is there’s been quite a large number in—”

“Florizel Street,” the Doctor finished, having picked that up from the files he’d read.

Someone knocked on the door and then pushed it open without waiting for a reply. “Found another one, sir.”

The Doctor looked up, and rage rushed over him. He’d recognise that pink skirt and those pink heels anywhere; after all, he’d been admiring them just a few hours ago. _This is why I can hardly feel her._

“Rose,” he murmured, walking toward her as the man holding her flipped the blanket up to reveal her blank face.

“You know her?” Bishop asked.

“Know her? She—” _She’s what? My companion? My partner? The only light in my dark life? It’s all true. Why wouldn’t I tell her?_

The TARDIS pulsed comfortingly in his mind. _She knows_ , she reminded him.

He vaguely registered that the two officers were still talking, and then he realised something they’d said. “They did what?”

“I’m sorry?” Bishop asked.

“They left her where?”

“Just in the street.”

“In the street. They left her in the street. They took her face and just chucked her out and left her in the street. And as a result, that makes things simple. Very, very simple. Do you know why?” he asked, taking off his glasses and turning away from the horrible sight of Rose’s blank face.

“No,” Bishop said, a little frightened now.

The Doctor’s impotent rage spilled out. “Because now, Detective Inspector Bishop, there is no power on this Earth that can stop me. Come on!”

He pushed past the man he thought was called Crabtree, Bishop on his heels. “Doctor! Doctor, wait.”

The Doctor spun around. “Wait? Wait while Rose sits there counting on me to save her? No, Detective Inspector. You may have your orders from on high to pretend this isn’t happening, but I have a promise to keep.”

The DI’s gaze drifted down to the Doctor’s left hand, and again, he felt the futility of having pushed Rose away for so long. The police inspector’s sharp gaze returned to his face, and a moment later he nodded, apparently having found what he was looking for.

“You think you can do it then? You think you can figure this out and undo it all?”

“Failure is not an option,” the Doctor said darkly, walking toward the exit again.

Outside, the sun had risen. “The big day dawns,” Bishop said, but the Doctor ignored his attempt to break some of the tension. 

“Let’s get back to Florizel Street, Detective Inspector. I think I know just who we need to talk to.”

Bishop nodded. “We’ll have to walk; most of the streets are blocked off today for parties.”

The calm hum of the TARDIS was the only thing keeping the Doctor’s emotions in check. He tapped out a rhythm against his leg as they walked back to the Connollys’ house, hoping he could work his way around the pigheadedness of Mr. Connolly to get the answers he needed. 

Luck was with him, and Tommy answered the doorbell. “Tommy, talk to me.” The lad stepped out and tried to close the door behind him. “I need to know exactly what happened inside your house.”

The door flung open and Mr. Connolly followed them out onto the front step. “What the blazes do you think you’re doing?” he hissed at his son.

“I want to help, Dad.”

The Doctor clenched his jaw. “Mr. Connolly,” he started, keeping his tone as even as possible.

Connolly whirled back on the Doctor, an ugly snarl on his face. “Shut your face, you, whoever you are. We can handle this ourselves.” Just when the Doctor was ready to show him exactly how little he cared for his method of handling things, the man wheeled on his son. “Listen, you little twerp. You’re hardly out of the bloomin’ cradle, so I don’t expect you to understand. But I’ve got a position to maintain. People round here respect me. It matters what people think.”

Realisation dawned on Tommy’s face. “Is that why you did it, Dad?”

“What do you mean? Did what?”

Tommy’s face was white as a sheet, but his voice was strong.  “You ratted on Gran. How else would the police know where to look, unless some coward told them.”

“How dare you!” Spittle flew out of his mouth and landed on his son’s face. “Do you think I fought a war just so a mouthy little scum like you could call me a coward?”

Tommy shook in fear and anger, but in that moment, he finally became his own person. “You don’t get it, do you? You fought against fascism, remember? People telling you how to live, who you could be friends with, who you could fall in love with, who could live and who had to die.”

The Doctor’s patience for this domestic drama wore thin, but the shock on Connolly’s face was worth the few extra minutes it took.

“Don’t you get it?” Tommy pressed on. “You were fighting so that little twerps like me could do what we want, say what we want. Now you’ve become just like them. You’ve been informing on everyone, haven’t you? Even Gran. All to protect your precious reputation.”

The Doctor had seen what the men hadn’t—Mrs. Connolly, standing in the shadows. At this revelation, she finally spoke up. “Eddie, is that true?”

“I did it for us, Rita,” he insisted. “She was filthy. A filthy, disgusting thing!”

Revulsion was etched on every line of the woman’s face. “She’s my mother. All the others you informed on, all the people in our street, our friends.”

“I had to. I, I did the right thing.” For the first time, Eddie Connolly realised the things he’d done to maintain his precious position were abhorrent to the very people he’d been trying to impress. He turned around, looking at the Doctor and Bishop imploringly. The Doctor glared back at him, letting him see exactly how much he despised him.

“The right thing for us or for you, Eddie?” Mrs. Connolly turned to her son. “You go, Tommy. Go with the Doctor and do some good. Get away from this house, it’s poison. We had a ruddy monster under this roof, all right, but it weren’t my mother!” Rita Connolly slammed the door in her husband’s face.

The Doctor held out a hand. “Tommy.” The boy followed him and Bishop down the street, only glancing over his shoulder once at his father.

There was a table set up in the middle of Florizel Street, the neighbours preparing for the party, but the Doctor didn’t care about that. “Tommy, tell me about that night. The night she changed.”

He shrugged helplessly. “She was just watching the telly.”

The Doctor looked up at the skyline, pieces clicking into place. “Rose said it. She guessed it straight away. Of course she did. All these aerials in one little street. How come?”

“Bloke up the road, Mr. Magpie, he’s selling them cheap.”

The Doctor took off running. “Come on!” he shouted. Magpie, the man handing out televisions yesterday like they were lollies. The store was at the end of Florizel Street—no wonder this was where the highest concentration of affected people lived.

The shop windows were dark and the closed sign hung in the door, but the Doctor cared little for niceties. A simple, expedient fist to the window broke the glass and let him open the door.

“Here now, you can’t do that!” Bishop protested, but the Doctor’s patience had finally reached its end.

“Shut up!” He marched into the shop and pounded on the bell on the counter. “If you’re here, come out and talk to me. Magpie!”

“Maybe he’s out?” Tommy suggested tentatively.

“Looks like it,” the Doctor said and went behind the counter to search further.

Inside one of the drawers he found a portable television. “Oh, hello. This isn’t right. This is very much not right.” He licked it, trying to get a read on its chemical composition. “Tastes like iron. Bakelite. Put together with human hands, yes, but the design itself…”

He scanned the device with the sonic, trying to get a read on what it did. “Oh, beautiful work. That is so simple.”

Bishop leaned over the counter, fascinated by the design. “That’s incredible. It’s like a television, but portable. A portable television.”

But the sonic had shown the Doctor something else. He lifted it slowly, trying to catch the signal. “It’s not the only power source in the room,” he said quietly.

He turned the screwdriver, and the television screens all lit up. Each one showed just a face, the people who’d been taken, apparently. The Doctor walked past them slowly, looking for the one…

And there she was. Rose, staring back at him from a television screen. There was no sound, but he could tell what she was saying—his name, over and over. Loss washed over him. How could he ever have thought holding her at a distance would make losing her hurt any less?

He knelt down until they were at eye level. “I’m on my way,” he whispered.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

The Doctor looked over at Magpie, who’d finally come into the shop. “I want my friend restored, and I think that’s beyond a little backstreet electrician, so tell me, who’s really in charge here?” he snarled

“Yoo hoo!” One of the televisions called out to them. “I think that must be me. Ooh, this one’s smart as paint.”

The Doctor, DI Bishop, and Tommy all stared at the screen. “Is she talking to us?” Bishop asked.

“I’m sorry, gentlemen,” Magpie said, “I’m afraid you’ve brought this on yourselves. May I introduce you to my new… friend?”

“Jolly nice to meet you.”

Bishop had spent weeks dealing with faceless people, but a talking television was apparently more than he could handle. “Oh my God, it’s her, that woman off the telly.”

“No, it’s just using her image.” _Using her image the same way it’s taken the images of our family members._

“What?” Tommy asked. “What are you?”

“I’m the Wire, and I will gobble you up, pretty boy. Every last morsel.” Her words turned vicious, and the image on the screen became full colour. “And when I have feasted, I shall regain the corporeal body, which my fellow kind denied me.”

“Good Lord. Colour television!” Bishop murmured.

“So your own people tried to stop you?” the Doctor asked.

The Wire sniffed. “They executed me. But I escaped in this form and fled across the stars.”

“And now you’re trapped in the television.”

The colour bled out of the image. “Not for much longer.”

“Doctor, is this what got my Gran?” Tommy asked.

“Yes, Tommy. It feeds off the electrical activity of the brain, but it gorges itself like a great overfed pig, taking people’s faces, their essences. It stuffs itself.”

“And you let her do it, Magpie.” Bishop’s voice was filled with disgust.

Magpie cowered against the wall. “I had to! She allowed me my face. She’s promised to release me at the time of manifestation.”

“What does that mean?” Tommy asked.

“The appointed time,” the Wire crowed. “My crowning glory.”

Bishop’s horror was palpable. “Doctor, the coronation!”

The Doctor nodded. “For the first time in history, millions gathered around a television set.” And then he found a way out. A smile crept over his face, and he stepped closer to the Wire. “But you’re not strong enough yet, are you? You can’t do it all from here. That’s why you need this!” he said, holding up the portable television. “You need something more powerful! This will turn a big transmitter into a big receiver.”

“What a clever thing you are! But why fret about it? Why not just relax, kick off your shoes and enjoy the Coronation? Believe me, you’ll be glued to the screen.”

The Doctor saw electricity come out from the screen and wrap around his head. The energy tried to work its way into his mind, but his barriers were holding, at least for the moment.

“Hungry! Hungry! The Wire is hungry!”

The part of his mind that controlled motor functions was still wholly his own, and he pulled the sonic screwdriver out of his jacket pocket and started to adjust the settings.

His constantly working mind must have been like a five course meal, but she didn’t understand the danger at first. “Ah, this one is tasty. Oh, I’ll have lashings of him! Delicious!” Just before he could aim the screwdriver at the screen, she finally realised what he was doing. “Ah! Armed. He’s armed and clever. Withdraw! Withdraw!”

The Doctor fell to the ground, his head pounding from the unpleasant experience. When he finally came out of his daze, Magpie and the box were gone and Bishop was faceless.

Tommy was just knocked out though. “Tommy, wake up. Tommy, come on!”

“What happened?” he asked groggily.

The Doctor asked the more important question. “Where’s Magpie?”

They dashed out of the store, but the van was gone and Magpie with it. “We don’t even know where to start looking. It’s too late,” Tommy said.

“It’s never too late, as a wise person once said. Kylie, I think,” the Doctor added offhandedly and started pacing in front of the store, his mind running a mile a minute. “The Wire’s got big plans. It’ll need—yes, yes, yes, it’s got to harvest half the population. Millions and millions of people and where are we?”

“Muswell Hill.”

“Muswell Hill. Muswell Hill! Which means—” He scanned the horizon and there it was. “Alexandra Palace, biggest TV transmitter in North London. Oh, that’s why it chose this place. Tommy?” he hollered, pushing the door open again.

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m going shopping.” He yanked all the drawers open, rummaging through them for the parts he needed. Mid twentieth century Earth wasn’t the ideal place to build this device, but it could be worse.

He already had a pile on the counter when Tommy came back inside. “Are you going to build something to stop it then?”

“That’s the plan.” He added another item to the parts on the counter.

“And you’ll find the parts here?”

“That’s the plan.” Two more things, just a few left.

“Tell me what you’re looking for. I can help.”

The Doctor looked up from the drawer and grinned. “Oh, humans! You’re so resilient. All right Tommy, you look through those drawers. We’re looking for something about this long,” he gestured with his fingers, “and shaped a little bit like an egg with pointed ends.”

While Tommy looked, the Doctor carefully stacked the parts in a very specific order. It wouldn’t be ideal for carrying, but that wasn’t the issue. “Is this what you want?” Tommy asked.

His head shot up. “Perfect! Right, I need one more thing.” He shoved the stack of parts into Tommy’s hands and ran back to the TARDIS. There were some things he just wasn’t going to find in an electrical shop in 1953.

The TARDIS had cooperated by moving his work room to the front of the corridor. “Thanks, old girl,” he murmured as he rummaged around in the right drawer. “I know it’s… ah!”

The lights flashed as he grabbed the part, and he patted the wall on his way back out. “I know. I promise, I’ll bring her back.” She hummed as he pulled the door shut.

“Got it. Let’s go.”

They ran side by side through the streets, Tommy awkwardly carrying the bundle of electrical parts while the Doctor started piecing together his device on the run—literally.  It was three quarters done when they rounded the corner in front of Alexandra Palace.

“There!” Tommy yelled, pointing to the tower. Magpie was nearly to the top.

“Come on!”

A guard tried to stop them. “Wait, wait, wait! Where do you think—” The Doctor held up the psychic paper, willing it to give them every inch of latitude they’d need. “Oh! I’m very sorry, sir. Shouldn’t you be at the Coronation?”

“They’re saving me a seat!”

“Who did he think you were?” Tommy gasped out.

The Doctor looked at the psychic paper. “King of Belgium, apparently.”

Inside the television control room, the Doctor hooked his device into the panel with copper wire. “Keep this switched on,” he commanded, pointing to the relay switch. “Don’t let anyone stop you, Tommy. Everything depends on it. You understand?” Tommy nodded, and he grabbed the coil of wire and ran to the transmitter, trailing wire behind him.

The guard tried to stop him again, but the Doctor ignored him and started climbing the ladder. Magpie had the screen containing the Wire around his neck and was only a few feet from the top of the antenna; he had to hurry.

Red flashes of electricity shot out across London just as the Doctor reached the final few feet. “It’s too late!” Magpie wailed. “It’s too late for all of us!’

“I shall consume you, Doctor,” the Wire cackled.

A bolt of electricity zapped him, and he nearly slipped off the ladder. He glared up at Magpie, tightened his grip, and kept climbing.

“I won’t let you do this, Magpie!” The Doctor reached the same level Magpie was at and started to manoeuvre closer to his position.

“Help me, Doctor. It burns. It took my face, my soul.”

“You cannot stop the Wire. Soon I shall become manifest.”

Another jolt of electricity shot out from the tower, and the Doctor’s feet slipped off the rungs completely this time. He hung by his fingers, hundreds of feet above London, and then pulled himself back up.

“No more of this. You promised me peace!”

“And peace you shall have.” The Doctor knew what was coming an instant before the Wire zapped Magpie into atoms. The strap attached to the portable screen caught on part of the antenna, and the Wire cackled gleefully.

But the Doctor noticed the way the charge buzzed around her screen. He reached for the device, wincing when she sent a zap of electricity to shock his hand. “Been burning the candle at both ends?” he said, shaking the tingles out of his fingers. “You’ve overextended yourself, Missus. You shouldn’t have had a crack at poor old Magpie there.”

He grabbed the box, and a second later a strong bolt of electricity shot through his body and out his feet. He looked at the gleeful Wire and grinned. “Rubber soles, swear by them!”

Now that he had the device in hand, he plugged the cable into the port. _Nothing happened. Something should have happened._

“Oh dear. Has our little plan gone horribly wrong, Doctor?”

_Tommy, Tommy fix it! It’s all down to you, Tommy._

The cruelty of time senses meant he could count every second that went by, knowing each one brought the Wire closer to victory—and himself closer to a lifetime without Rose.

Seventy-five tortuous seconds later, the red light slowly pulled back from London, through the tower, and into the box. “No!” she shouted.

“It’s close down, I’m afraid, and no epilogue.”

As soon as the screen went blank, the ache in his head from the broken connection with Rose faded. He laughed exultantly and swung down the rungs of the tower to the stairs.

Inside the control room, Tommy was watching the last few minutes of the Coronation. “What have I missed?” the Doctor asked, and the boy swung around, his mouth gaping open.

“Doctor! What happened?”

“Sorted. Electrical creature, TV technology, clever alien life form. That’s me by the way. I turned the receiver back into a transmitter and I trapped the Wire in here.”

He hit the eject button on his VCR. “I just invented the home video thirty years early. Betamax,” he said, before remembering Tommy wouldn’t have any idea what that meant.

On screen, Elizabeth II waved to her people from the balcony at Buckingham Palace. “Oh look. God save the Queen, eh?”

“So all the people…”

“Back to normal,” the Doctor promised with a grin. “And I know where they are. Want to come?”

They jogged through the streets until they reached the main exit to the holding area. Dozens of people milled about in the street, looking a little disoriented by their adventure, but none the worse for the wear.

They all faded away when the Doctor spotted Rose, chatting quietly with another woman. She must have felt his surge of joy and relief, because she looked up just as he started to jog toward her.

The wide, welcoming smile on her face was all he ever wanted to see. He wrapped his arms around her in one of those hugs that was really an embrace, needing to hold her and feel her breathing and her heart beating.

Rose seemed to understand how he felt, because she didn’t pull back or chastise him for his far-more-than-friendly gesture. She even laughed when he swung her around, the feeling of his own happiness and hers creating a sort of euphoric delight that he couldn’t contain. “You’re back,” he murmured in her ear. “I missed you.”

“I knew you’d save me.”

He closed his eyes tight and buried his face in her neck. He’d meant so much more when he’d said he’d missed her, but this wasn’t the place to explain.

Behind him, Tommy cleared his throat, and the Doctor reluctantly stepped back from Rose, though he kept an arm around her waist.

“Oh, you remember Tommy, don’t you Rose? Tommy here helped me bring everyone back.”

Beside Tommy, his gran smiled proudly. “That’s my grandson, always such a bright boy.”

“So Doctor,” Tommy said, “we’re having a party in the street this afternoon, and I wanted to invite you—to thank you for saving so many of our neighbours.”

“Oh, a party!” the Doctor cried. “Yeah, of course.”

The Doctor explained the Wire to Rose as they followed the restored residents of Florizel Street home. The street was crowded with people laughing and dancing, and the tables were now loaded with food. “We could go down the Mall, join in with the crowds,” Rose suggested.

“Nah, that’s just pomp and circumstance.” The Doctor  snagged a piece of cake as they walked by a table and nodded at the neighbours. “This is history right here.”

“The domestic approach,” she said, giving him the first tongue-touched smile he’d seen since he’d accidentally returned to London ten hours late.

Relief flooded through him. “Exactly.”

She chuckled. “Will it, that thing, is it trapped for good on video?”

“Hope so. Just to be on the safe side though, I’ll use my unrivalled knowledge of trans-temporal extirpation methods to neutralise the residual electronic pattern.”

She blinked up at him. “Residual electronic… Did you just use a lot of fancy words to say you’re going to tape over it?”

The Doctor laughed at her exasperated expression. “I might’ve done, yeah.”

“Well then just leave it to me; I’m always doing that.”

Tommy’d disappeared when they reached Florizel Street, but now he was in front of them, looking a bit shell-shocked. “Tell you what, Tommy,” the Doctor said, hoping to cheer him up, “you can have the scooter. Little present. Best, er, keep it in the garage for a few years though, eh?”

“Good riddance,” Tommy muttered.

The Doctor followed his gaze across the street. Eddie Connolly stared back at them, a suitcase in hand. “Is that it, then, Tommy?” he said quietly, hoping to ease the boy out of his bitterness. “New monarch, new age, new world. No room for a man like Eddie Connelly.”

Tommy nodded jerkily. “That’s right. He deserves it.”

Rose nudged him on the shoulder. “Tommy, go after him.”

“What for?” he asked incredulously.

“He’s your dad,” she pointed out softly.

“He’s an idiot.”

Rose’s eyes met the Doctor’s. “Of course he is. Like I said, he’s your dad. But you’re clever. Clever enough to save the world, so don’t stop there. Go on.”

Tommy hesitated a moment, and then followed after his dad, offering to carry the older man’s suitcase. Rose wrapped an arm around the Doctor’s waist, and he turned to press a kiss to her temple before he remembered they needed to talk first. “You are, you know,” he said instead. “Clever enough to save the world.”

“You got that then?”

He chuckled. “You weren’t exactly subtle.”

“I wasn’t exactly trying to be.”

He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and turned them away from the party. “Come on, back to the TARDIS.”

“Doctor…”

He stopped and looked at her. “I just want…” He looked around at the busy street, and she caught on.

“Okay,” she said softly.

They walked hand in hand back to their home, by unspoken agreement heading to the kitchen. Rose turned the kettle on and the Doctor pulled out their favourite cups.

Neither of them broke the silence until they were sitting side by side sipping their tea. “Did you feel anything?”

She shook her head. “Nah, it just sorta felt like I was… lost.”

He sensed the lie in her words. “Rose.” She toyed with the handle of her cup and refused to look at him. “‘Cause it hurt me, when you were gone.”

Her eyes flew to his, and he tapped the side of his head. “It hurt in here, because you’re supposed to be there and you weren’t. Hurt the TARDIS too.”

The lights flickered, and Rose ran a hand over the wall. He felt the soothing apology she gave the ship, and he thought he’d never loved her more.

“Don’t.”

He blinked. That was not what he’d expected her to say.

She looked up at him, a wry smile on her face. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but not right now. Not when it’s just because you’re scared because you almost lost me.”

He understood what she meant, but it still felt a little like rejection. She twined her hand with his. “Hey. You know I…”

He sighed and nodded. “I know. And you know…”

She rested her head on his shoulder. “I know.”

“So not now, but soon.”

It wasn’t a question, but she answered anyway. “Soon.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise, they'll be on the same page soon. Just... not yet.


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the halfway point of the story, give or take. It's also where the relationship becomes more overt and less unspoken. In other words, change is on the horizon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of you have asked if this story goes through Doomsday and/or changes the end. Without spoiling the end, I can say I've got a sequel planned. So either the conclusion is a Doomsday fix-it and the sequel follows series 3, or the sequel is about them finding their way back to each other.

The doubts started after Rose left the Doctor in the library to go to bed. He smiled and said good night, but there didn’t seem to be any extra warmth in his words, anything that hinted at the emotion she’d felt from his so clearly when they’d returned to the TARDIS.  

She stared at her face in the mirror as she got ready for bed, wondering what it had been like for him to see it blank. _Did he panic? Maybe he really was only going to say something because it was a big emotional moment, seeing my face again._

And that was a good enough reason for her to have held him off, she reminded herself as she put on her jim jams and crawled into bed. He might not have known he wasn’t ready, but if they finally took their relationship to the next step and he backed away… Rose turned over on her side and punched at her pillow until it supported her neck just right. _It’s better this way._

The next morning she walked groggily into the galley, halfway expecting it to be empty, as it had been on many of the mornings since Scotland and the werewolf. Instead, the Doctor was there waiting with a mug of tea for her and breakfast on the table. 

They ate almost entirely in silence, save mundane sentences like, “Pass the butter.” Rose poured herself more tea when she finished her meal and stared at him over the rim of her cup. 

The Doctor quirked an eyebrow at her. “I’m not going anywhere, Rose.” 

She could hardly believe how well he was taking this. “I thought you’d be… all…” She waved her hand in the air, not sure what she was trying to say, or even why she was discussing this at all.

He cleared the dishes from the table and placed them in the sink. “Would you rather I was—” He imitated her gesture.

“God, no!” she exclaimed. “This is… I just…” 

Rose stared at his back while he washed the dishes in silence. Over the last few months, she’d gotten pretty good at translating the emotions she picked up from him into a general sense of what he was thinking, but right now, she had no idea what was going on in his head.  

When he set the last cup in the dish drainer, the Doctor turned around and leaned against the counter, his arms crossed over his chest. “I know there’s really nothing I can say that will convince you I’ve changed my mind, Rose, but actions speak louder than words, right?” 

Rose nodded mutely.

“I’m not going to run, and the only way I can prove that is by not running.” He tilted his head slightly. “Or maybe I can do one better, and actually talk about something else I’ve been avoiding.” 

The wave of guilt surprised Rose. “What is it?”

“I’ve barely taught you anything about telepathic barriers.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I didn’t want to think about your telepathy, so I left you wide open to all kinds of attacks.” 

Rose started. She hadn’t thought of it like that, but then, she hadn’t really understood the potential dangers. “Well, better late than never, yeah?” She stood up before the Doctor could argue with that. “I’ll get changed and meet you in the library in half an hour.”

If she’d known what hard work it would be, Rose might not have been quite so eager to dive into exploring her telepathy. For the next two weeks, she spent every morning learning how to hold a telepathic conversation and how to keep unwanted minds out of her own. A nagging headache caused by the mental strain built behind her eyes by lunchtime, when the Doctor would declare lessons to be over for the day. After they ate, he’d take them someplace quiet and restful, away from as many other minds as possible. 

Rose was grateful for the care, but as she grew more comfortable with her telepathy, she became restless. She fidgeted with her breakfast, wanting to ask to do something more, and yet not wanting to interrupt the lessons if the Doctor thought they were still necessary.

The Doctor understood without her saying a word. “Tell you what. It’s been a while since we used the randomiser. Let’s see where she wants to take us today.” 

The promise of an adventure relaxed Rose enough to grin at him. “Yeah, all right,” she agreed. She glanced down at her housecoat. “Just let me shower and get dressed first.” 

“I’ll have you know, there are some planets where what you’re wearing would be the height of fashion.” 

“Yeah, well you can take me to the Planet of Pyjamas some other time. Go tinker with the TARDIS or something; I’ll be there in a bit.” 

The Doctor’s approving gaze twenty minutes later told her she’d been right about the bright pink jacket suiting her. “Ready to go?” 

She grabbed hold of the railing and nodded. “Rose Tyler,” he said, pointing to her hands, “if I didn’t know better, I’d say you didn’t trust my ability to pilot my own ship.” 

“Then why don’t you prove me wrong, Doctor?” she suggested, letting a flirtatious tone creep into her voice. “Show me how impressive you are.” 

He flipped the lever. “I don’t think you’re ready for how impressive I can be.” 

Rose’s heart stuttered and stalled; he hadn’t flirted with her so blatantly in weeks. The TARDIS’s rocky landing gave her a way to lessen some the tension suddenly thick between them.“Good thing I held on,” she said, her voice a little shaky.

The ship’s unease as they left her took her mind off the Doctor’s flirting entirely. “That’s odd,” Rose muttered as she followed the Doctor out of the ship.

“Something’s wrong with her,” he said, stroking the door.

“Yeah… she feels like I do if I have too much to eat,” Rose offered. “Not sick, but not well.”

He nodded. “Indigestion. Like she didn’t want to land.”

Rose raised her eyebrows. “Oh, if you think there’s going to be trouble, we could always get back inside and go somewhere else.”

A beat passed, and then they both burst into laughter, the tension between them eased by the flirty banter and rough landing. When their amusement passed, they looked around at the close quarters and the stacks of boxes surrounding them. “I think we’ve landed inside a cupboard,” the Doctor said. He strode toward the door. “Here we go.”

“Open Door 15,” a computerised voice said.

The corridor wasn’t much roomier than the cupboard had been. “Some sort of base,” the Doctor said. “Moon base, sea base, space base. They build these things out of kits.”

The computerised voice kept talking as they walked toward the next door, but Rose could hardly hear it over the sound of wind rushing over their heads. “Glad we’re indoors. Sounds like a storm out there.”

Door sixteen led them to a long corridor, lit from the floor. “Human design,” the Doctor said. “You’ve got a thing about kits. This place was put together like a flat pack wardrobe, only bigger. And easier.”

The next door led into a well-lit room. The Doctor jumped down the stairs, and Rose closed the door behind him. “Oh, it’s a sanctuary base!” Rose looked around at the small living area with tables and chairs and a few rugs on the floor to make it look homelike. “Deep space exploration. We’ve gone way out. And listen to that, underneath. Someone’s drilling.”

She looked at the floor and felt the vibrations, but when she looked back up at the wall, the words there erased all thoughts of drills and storms. “Welcome to hell.”

“Oh, it’s not that bad,” he protested, rolling his eyes at her.

Rose laughed and nodded toward the wall. “No, over there.” She was still laughing when he turned around and took in the words painted on the wall with black spray paint. Beneath it were some kind of scribbles, maybe an alien numerical system.

The Doctor’s amusement faded quickly. “Hold on, what does that say?” He ran over to the wall and bent down to peer at it. “That’s weird, it won’t translate.”

Rose blinked. She hadn’t even considered it might be writing. “But I thought the TARDIS translated everything, writing as well. We should see English.”

He ran a hand over the words, as if he expected his touch to magically get them to translate. “Exactly. If that’s not working, then it means this writing is old. Very old. Impossibly old. We should find out who’s in charge.” He jumped to his feet and spun the wheel on the next door. “We’ve gone beyond the reach of the TARDIS’ knowledge. Not a good move. And if someone’s lucky enough—”

The door swung open, and they were almost face to face with a trio of bald aliens with tentacles where they should have had noses. Each alien held a plastic ball in their hands that seemed to come out of their mouth.

“Oh!” the Doctor said, taking half a step back and nearly treading on Rose’s foot. “Right. Hello. Sorry. I was just saying, er, nice base.”

“We must feed,” they chorused.

“You’ve got to what?”

“We must feed,” they repeated, more insistently.

Rose grabbed the Doctor’s arm. “Yeah. I think they mean us.” She and the Doctor backed up into the room as the aliens advanced, repeating their creepy refrain over and over.

 _Time to beat a hasty retreat,_ she decided, and she felt the Doctor’s agreement. But before they could go back through the door they’d come in by, more aliens entered the room. And then a third door opened, and the chorus of, “We must feed,” grew louder and louder.

The Doctor pulled the sonic screwdriver out of his pocket. Not wanting to be unarmed, Rose grabbed one of the chairs and brandished it at the tentacled aliens.

They were backed against the wall when all but the first alien fell silent. “We must feed—” He tapped the ball he was holding and rattled it a bit— “you, if you are hungry.”

“Sorry?” the Doctor said faintly, and Rose could feel the adrenaline running through both their systems.

“We apologise,” the alien said kindly. “Electromagnetics have interfered with speech systems. Would you like some refreshment?”

Rose slowly put the chair down and brushed a stray hair out of her face. The danger appeared to be imaginary.

Before the Doctor could stammer out an answer, Door Eighteen opened and three people—two men and a woman—entered the room. She quickly noted their dog tags and matching coats and realised the military must be running this base.

“What the hell?” the older man said. “How did…?”

The alien creatures made way for the man to approach them. “Captain,” he said into a comm device on his wrist, “you’re not going to believe this. We’ve got people. Out of nowhere. I mean, real people. I mean…” He looked at them both, his eyes wide. “…two living people, just standing here right in front of me.”

“Don’t be stupid, that’s impossible,” the captain replied.

The gentleman in front of them raised a sardonic eyebrow. “I suggest telling them that.”

His quiet astonishment confused Rose. If this was a base then… She looked at them, her brows drawn together. “But you’re a sort of space base. You must have visitors now and then. It can’t be that impossible.”

“You’re telling me you don’t know where you are?”

The Doctor shook his head. “No idea.” He leaned forward and whispered in a conspiratorial tone: “More fun that way.”

The man opened his mouth, probably to demand an explanation, but a woman’s voice came over the comms. “Stand by, everyone. Buckle down. We have incoming.” Instead of arguing on the impossibility of their existence, the leader moved to the door and opened it up. The rest of her orders were drowned out by a harsh alarm, but Rose got the picture fairly clearly.

“Through here, now,” the military man ordered. “Quickly, come on! Move!” The reassuring pressure of the Doctor’s hand rested in the small of Rose’s back as they left the room and hustled through the corridors. Above their heads, something was banging against the corridor. Below, a piece of tubing must have come loose, because suddenly the corridor was filled with steam. “Move it! Come on! Keep moving. Come on! Quickly! Move it!”

Desperate to get out of the enclosed space, Rose and the Doctor pushed through the first door they saw. Rose didn’t look around for a moment, shaking some of the tension out of her hands. But when she felt the Doctor’s surprised pleasure, she looked up and saw a control room filled with people—people all staring at them like they were impossible.

“Oh, my god. You meant it,” a black man said from the centre of the room. He was younger than the security chief, and Rose thought she recognised the voice they’d heard earlier of the captain.

A young woman standing on the edge of the room gaped at them. “People! Look at that, real people!”

The Doctor spoke first. “That’s us. Hooray!”

 _Why do they keep saying real, like it’s such a surprise?_ “Yeah, definitely real. My name’s Rose. Rose Tyler. And, and this is the Doctor.”

Another man rushed at them, and Rose thought he looked Indian or Pakistani. “Come on, the oxygen must be offline. We’re hallucinating. They can’t be…” His eyes bugged out and he turned back to the group. “No, they’re real.”

“Come on, we’re in the middle of an alert!” the captain said tersely. “Danny, strap up.” The man in front of them returned to his seat. “The quake’s coming in! Impact in thirty seconds!” He glanced at Rose and the Doctor. “Sorry you two, whoever you are. Just hold on, tight.”

“Hold on to what?” Rose asked.

Rose and the Doctor turned toward the wall and grabbed onto a bit of railing with one hand, and each other with the other. “Got a firm grip?” the Doctor murmured in her ear.

“Yeah. This is an adventure, isn’t it?”

She felt his grin. “What’s this planet called, anyway?” he asked the captain.

A woman, older than the one who’d spoke earlier, said, “Now, don’t be stupid. It hasn’t got a name. How could it have a name?” She must have seen their confusion; her jaw dropped a little more. “You really don’t know, do you?”

“And impact!” the captain said, forestalling any answer.

The quake wasn’t any worse than some of the TARDIS’ rougher landings. “Oh well, that wasn’t so bad,” the Doctor said. Rose rolled her eyes when another quake hit just as the words left his mouth, much stronger than the first.

Sparks flew up from the console, and Rose had to let go of the Doctor’s hand to grab onto her handhold with both hands. Her shoulders ached from holding on while the entire room rattled violently.

Things settled down after sixteen seconds, and the man who’d met them earlier walked over to the console with a fire extinguisher in his hands. In the back of Rose’s mind, the TARDIS felt panicked. She sent a wave of calm toward the ship and felt the Doctor do the same while they checked each other over for bumps and bruises.

“Okay, that’s it,” the captain said. “Everyone all right? Speak to me, Ida.”

“Yeah, yeah,” the older woman answered.

The captain went on checking in with his crew, but Rose tuned them out. “All right then?” she asked the Doctor, running a hand through his hair. He winced a bit when she touched the back of his head, and she raised an eyebrow.

“Just a bump,” he said. “You?”

Rose rotated her shoulders. “I’m fine.”

The captain and crew were silent, and Rose and the Doctor looked at them. “We’re fine, thanks, fine,” he said. “Yeah, don’t worry about us.”

The captain ignored him, looking at the screen above his head. “The surface caved in. I deflected it onto storage five through eight. We’ve lost them completely. Toby, go and check the rocket link.”

Toby scowled. “That’s not my department.”

The captain rolled his eyes and sighed a little, and Rose guessed it was a frequent debate. “Just do as I say, yeah?” Toby stomped through the door behind Rose and the Doctor, and she could almost see the resentment coming off him.

Ida read a few status updates off the display in front of her, but now that things had settled down, Rose realised she could still hear the wind howling outside. “Never mind the earthquake, that’s… That’s one hell of a storm. What is that, a hurricane?”

The younger woman shook her head. “You’d need an atmosphere for a hurricane. There’s no air out there. It’s a complete vacuum.”

Rose blinked. “Then what’s shaking the roof?”

“You’re not joking,” Ida said slowly, incredulity in her eyes. “You really don’t know. Well introductions. FYI, as they said in the olden days.” She moved around the console to stand in front of them and started pointing out the crew. “I’m Ida Scott, science officer. Zachary Cross Flane, acting Captain, sir. You’ve met Mr. Jefferson, he’s Head of Security. Danny Bartock, Ethics committee.”

“Not as boring as it sounds,” Danny interjected.

Ida shot him a wry look. “And that man who just left, that was Toby Zed, Archaeology, and this,” she walked back to the younger woman and put her hands on her shoulders, “is Scooti Manista, trainee maintenance. And this? This is home.”

Ida pulled down a lever and the blast doors above them opened. “Brace yourselves,” Zach said as the narrow band of light widened to reveal a window out into space. “The sight of it sends some people mad.”

Rose stared up at the huge, glowing circle surrounding a— “That’s a black hole,” she breathed.

“But that’s impossible!” the Doctor protested. The evidence was right there in front of them though—streams of light and debris being pulled into something that looked like a glowing doughnut with a gaping hole at the centre.

“I did warn you,” Zach said.

Rose felt the Doctor’s stunned disbelief and unease. “We’re standing under a black hole.”

“In orbit,” Ida expanded.

“But we can’t be.”

There was weight behind his denial. It wasn’t just his superior knowledge of physics, but also a keen awareness of exactly what this meant for them.

“You can see for yourself. We’re in orbit.”

They both looked at Ida, and the Doctor continued to argue. “But we can’t be.”

She raised her eyebrows slightly in challenge. “This lump of rock is suspended in perpetual geostationary orbit around that black hole without falling in. Discuss.”

Rose finally looked away from the black hole. “And that’s bad, yeah?”

“Bad doesn’t cover it,” the Doctor said, and she watched him shift into instructor mode. “A black hole’s a dead star. It collapses in on itself, in and in and in until the matter’s so dense and tight it starts to pull everything else in too. Nothing in the universe can escape it. Light, gravity, time.”

 _Time?_ The mystery of the TARDIS’s unease was explained.

He nodded slightly. “Everything just gets pulled inside and crushed.”

“So, they can’t be in orbit,” Rose said, trying to work out exactly what was happening here. “We should be pulled right in.”

“We should be dead,” he countered.

“And yet here we are, beyond the laws of physics.” Rod recognised the satisfaction in Ida’s voice; it was the exact same tone the Doctor used when he was handed a puzzle to solve. “Welcome on board.”

“But if there’s no atmosphere out there, what’s that?” Rose asked Ida, nodding toward the open window.

“Stars breaking up,” the science officer said. A shadowy cloud passed over them, pulled inexorably closer to the centre of the black hole. “Gas clouds. We have whole solar systems being ripped apart above our heads, before falling into that thing.”

“So, a bit worse than a storm then,” Rose concluded.

Ida smiled. “Just a bit.”

“Just a bit, yeah,” Rose repeated, looking back up at the impossible phenomenon.

The room shook a little again, and once it settled, Rose and the Doctor moved toward the console. “Tell me everything you can about this black hole,” he demanded, pulling his specs out of his jacket pocket.

Toby slipped back to his station, a few long rolls of paper in hand. “The rocket link’s fine,” he said.

Zach brought up a hologram. “That’s the black hole, officially designated K37 Gem five.”

Ida picked up the story. “In the scriptures of the Valtino, this planet is called Krop Tor, the bitter pill. And the black hole is supposed to be a mighty demon. It was tricked into devouring the planet, only to spit it out, because it was poison.”

There was an appealing justice to the tale. “The bitter pill. I like that,” Rose said.

The Doctor stared at the hologram, confusion on his face. “We are so far out. Lost in the drifts of the universe. How did you even get here?”

“We flew in. You see,” Zach shifted the hologram to a picture of a sphere with what looked like a radio signal beaming out from it. “This planet’s generating a gravity field. We don’t know how. We’ve no idea. But it’s kept in constant balance against the black hole. And the field extends out there as a funnel. A distinct gravity funnel, reaching out into clear space. That was our way in.”

“You flew down that thing?” Rose asked, more than a little impressed. “Like a roller coaster.”

Zach shook his head. “By rights, the ship should have been torn apart. We lost the Captain, which is what put me in charge.”

Rose sobered a little. She’d forgotten Ida had introduced him as the acting captain, which meant someone else must have held the job originally.

“You’re doing a good job,” Ida told him.

Zach shrugged. “Yeah, well, needs must.”

“But if that gravity funnel closes, there’s no way out,” Danny said, pointing out the obvious consequences.

“We had fun speculating about that,” Scooti said sarcastically.

“Oh, yeah. That’s the word.” Danny bopped her on the head with one of Toby’s rolls of paper. “Fun.”

The Doctor was growing impatient with all the distractions from the story. “But that field would take phenomenal amounts of power,” he said. “I mean not just big, but off the scale! Can I?” he asked, pointing to Ida’s station.

She picked up a handheld device and took it to him. “Sure. Help yourself.”

One of the tentacled aliens approached Rose, distracting her momentarily. “Your refreshment,” it said, handing her a plastic cup.

“Oh, yeah. Thanks. Thank you.” She suddenly remembered her manners, and touched its arm in apology. “I’m sorry, what was your name?”

“We have no titles. We are as one.”

The idea didn’t sit well with Rose, but the creature didn’t seem to have any other answer. It walked away, and Rose turned to Danny. “Um, what are they called?”

“Oh, come on,” he said. “Where have you been living? Everyone’s got one.”

“Well, not me, so, what are they?” She flashed him a fake smile, tired of his condescending tone.

“They’re the Ood.”

“The Ood?” she repeated, stretching out the vowel sound.

But Danny didn’t even crack a smile. He just nodded, as if to say, _Well yeah, what else would they be called?_ “The Ood.”

“Well, that’s ood,” she said, looking over at the Ood.

He shrugged. “Very ood, but handy. They work the mine shafts. All the drilling and stuff. Supervision and maintenance. They’re born for it. Basic slave race.”

Suddenly all the humour in the situation disappeared, and she felt twin flashes of disgust—her own and the Doctor’s. “You’ve got slaves?”

Scooti rolled her eyes. “Don’t start.” She turned to Danny. “She’s like one of that lot. Friends of the Ood,” she concluded, dragging the vowel out.

Rose stiffened her spine. “Well maybe I am, yeah. Since when do humans need slaves?”

Danny shook his head. “But the Ood offer themselves. If you don’t give them orders, they just pine away and die.”

One of the Ood came back over. “Seriously, you like being ordered about?” Rose asked.

The sphere in his hand lit up, and Rose realised it was what they used to communicate. “It is what we all crave.”

“Why’s that, then?”

“We have nothing else in life.”

That was a familiar sentiment, and Rose was more sure than ever that the Ood were an oppressed class. “Yeah, well, I used to think like that, a long time ago.”

The Doctor’s voice pulled her away from the ethical debate with the ethics officer. “There we go. Do you see?” Rose walked back over to the Doctor, who was pointing to something on his display. “To generate that gravity field, and the funnel, you’d need a power source with an inverted self extrapolating reflex of six to the power of six every six seconds.”

Rose leaned over his arm and scanned the equation, getting the gist of what it meant. “But Doctor, that kind of power…”

“It’s impossible,” he finished.

“It took us two years to work that out,” Zach said in amazement.

The Doctor pushed his glasses up on his nose. “I’m very good.”

There was a half-formed question in Rose’s mind, but before she could grab onto it, Ida leaned over the console and jumped into the conversation. “But that’s why we’re here. This power source is ten miles below through solid rock. Point Zero. We’re drilling down to try and find it.”

Zach took over the explanation. “It’s giving off readings of over ninety stats on the Blazon scale.”

“It could revolutionise modern science,” Ida said.

“We could use it to fuel the Empire,” Jefferson said.

The Doctor snorted softly. “Or start a war.”

“It’s buried beneath us, in the darkness, waiting.”

Rose raised her eyebrows at Toby. Nothing in the last ten minutes had improved her first impression of him. “What’s your job, chief dramatist?”

Toby shrugged, and the frustration on his face softened her opinion just a little. “Well, whatever it is down there is not a natural phenomena. And this, ah, planet once supported life eons ago, before the human race had even learned to walk.”

“I saw that lettering written on the wall,” the Doctor said to Toby. “Did you do that?”

He nodded. “I copied it from fragments we found unearthed by the drilling, but I can’t translate it,” he told them, scratching at the back of his neck.

“No, neither can I,” the Doctor said. “And that’s saying something.”

Toby stared down at the display. “There was some form of civilisation. They buried something. Now it’s reaching out, calling us in.”

Rose felt a familiar rush of exuberant energy, and knew the Doctor was about to go into raptures about how wonderful humans were. “And you came.”

“Well, how could we not?” Ida asked.

“So, when it comes right down to it, why did you come here? Why did you do that? Why? I’ll tell you why.” Rose grinned up at him, caught up in his enthusiasm. “Because it was there. Brilliant. Excuse me, er, Zach, wasn’t it?”

“That’s me.”

“Just stand there, because I’m going to hug you. Is that all right?”

The captain looked a little surprised, but took the question in stride. “I suppose so.”

“Here we go. Come on, then.” He hugged Zach tight. Standing behind him, Rose could see the nonplussed expression on the captain’s face, and she stifled a giggle. Not many people knew how to take the Doctor when he got like this.

“Oh, human beings. You are amazing! Ha!” The rest of the crew looked on in confusion, but they didn’t ask questions when the Doctor stepped back. “Thank you,” he told Zach.

“Not at all.”

The Doctor switched into hyper focus, and Rose braced herself for the onslaught. “But apart from that, you’re completely mad. You should pack your bags, get back in that ship and fly for your lives.”

“You can talk,” Ida argued. “And how the hell did you get here?”

“Oh, I’ve got this, er, this ship,” Rose and the Doctor shared a look. “It’s hard to explain. It just sort of appears.”

“We can show you,” she offered. “We parked down the corridor from er… Oh, what’s it called? Habitation area…”

“Three,” the Doctor supplied.

“Three. Yeah.”

Zach looked at Rose and then at the Doctor, and the look on his face put a dull ache in Rose’s stomach. “Do you mean Storage Six?”

The Doctor tilted his head a little, picturing where they’d landed. “It was a bit of a cupboard, yeah.” He caught the looks on their faces. “Storage Six. But you said. You said. You said Storage Five to Eight.”

The Doctor bolted out of the control room. He and Rose had both felt the odd pull earlier, but they’d chalked it up to the TARDIS not appreciating being rattled around.

Back in Habitation Three, the Doctor spun the wheel on Door Seventeen as fast as he could. “Open the door, come on!” he shouted, his panic taking over.

They rushed through Door Seventeen, and door fifteen, but when they reached Door Sixteen, the one closest to the TARDIS, it wouldn’t open. He pounded on the controls, trying to get it to work. “It can’t be. It can’t be!”

He leaned his head against the door, staring out the porthole. “The TARDIS is gone. The earthquake, this section collapsed.”

Rose tugged on his shoulder, and he turned to face her. “But you know she’s not gone.”

He stepped back so she could see for herself. The TARDIS was still alive and nearby, but… “Look down,” he said quietly, directing her gaze to the sinkhole in the planet’s surface. He felt the moment she realised what had happened.

The familiar hum of the TARDIS reached out to calm them both, and Rose slipped her hand into his. “How are we going to get to her?” she asked.

The only way to retrieve the TARDIS would be to get down to the centre of the planet. The Doctor opened his mouth to tell Rose they were as good as stuck here when he felt the vibrations beneath his feet. “The drill!”

They ran back to the control room. “The ground gave way,” he said to Zach without preamble. “My TARDIS must’ve fallen down right into the heart of the planet. But you’ve got robot drills heading the same way.”

“We can’t divert the drilling.” Zach walked away from him, but the Doctor chased after him.

“But I need my ship,” he said desperately. “It’s all I’ve got. Literally the only thing.” _The only home I have, the only thing I have to offer Rose._

Zach faced the Doctor, standing with his legs braced shoulder width apart. “Doctor, we’ve only got the resources to drill one central shaft down to the power source, and that’s it. No diversions, no distractions, no exceptions. Your machine is lost. All I can do is offer you a lift if we ever get to leave this place, and that is the end of it.”

Ida looked at him sympathetically. “I’ll, er, put you on the duty roster. We need someone in the laundry.”

The swing from despair to hope and now to frustration paralysed the Doctor for a moment, and he couldn’t find the words to respond to Ida’s sympathetic offer before she left. All the other officers exited the room as well, leaving the Doctor and Rose alone.

He leaned on the console, facing her. “I’ve trapped you here.”

“No, don’t worry about me.” He felt her compassion and knew she meant it. She wouldn’t blame him.

The control room shuddered against minor seismic activity, and they both looked up at the ceiling. Rose took a deep breath, and the Doctor could feel her trying to force down her own fear. “Okay, we’re on a planet that shouldn’t exist, under a black hole and no way out. Yeah, I’ve changed my mind. Start worrying about me.”

The Doctor tugged her into a hug, wrapping his arms tightly around her as if by holding her, he could keep her safe.

 


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the situation on Krop Tor worsens, the Doctor and Rose feel a hint of something in their future, lying in wait just around the bend in the road.

Chapter 20

Staring up at a black hole that shouldn’t exist with Rose in his arms, the Doctor finally understood what, “Better with two,” really meant. He could feel how afraid she was, but instead of overwhelming him, sharing it made it easier for him to deal with his own apprehension and guilt.

She wrapped her arms more tightly around him. “And he finally gets it,” she murmured, pulling a weak chuckle from him. They stood like that for another moment, and then she pulled back, a wan smile on her face. “If we’re gonna be here for a while, maybe we should get settled,” she suggested.

He scratched the back of his head. “I thought I’d have a look at the writing back in Habitation Three,” he said. “Might be the key to getting us out of here.”

“All right then.” Rose held out her hand, and he took it with a grateful smile and they walked through the corridor together.

Ravel’s Bolero played in the background, and the Doctor smiled slightly at the habits of humans. “Must be night shift,” he murmured. “Sanctuary bases tend to play classical over the PA during the evening, to help people shift into nighttime.”

To his surprise, Habitation Three was full when they arrived. Most of the crew, including several they hadn’t met, were sitting at the tables, eating what looked like it might be food. The Doctor nodded to a few in greeting, but didn’t stop on his way to the wall.

Five minutes later, Rose tapped him on the shoulder. “They’ve got food,” she said, pointing to the line and to her tray on the table. “Scooti said not to eat the blue, or the green.”

“What other colour is there then?” he asked, getting up.

She grinned. “None. It’s blue or green. Choose your poison I guess.”

He wrinkled his nose. “Think I’ll pass then. I’ve got a banana in my pockets somewhere.”

They sat down at one of the tables, and Rose was halfway through her blue dinner when the overhead lights flickered. The Doctor glanced at the expedition members and noticed most of them seemed unalarmed, though Ida, as the ranking officer in the room, raised her comm to contact the captain. “Zach? Have we got a problem?”

“No more than usual. Got the Scarlet System burning up. Might be worth a look.”

“You might want to see this.” She opened the shutters above them, revealing the black hole again. “Moment in history. There. On the edge.” A bright red stream flowed into the black hole, looking like a comet on fire. “That red cloud. That used to be the Scarlet System. Home to the Peluchi, a mighty civilisation spanning a billion years, disappearing forever. Their planets and suns consumed.” The awe in her voice added a touch of solemnity to the moment. “Ladies and gentlemen, we have witnessed its passing.”

Once the Scarlet System had been devoured, she moved to close the shutters again. “Er, no, could you leave it open?” the Doctor requested. “Just for a bit. I won’t go mad, I promise.”

Ida raised an eyebrow. “How would you know?” The Doctor smiled at her, and after a moment, she nodded in concession before turning to her crew.

“Scooti, check the lockdown. Jefferson, sign off the airlock seals for me.” One by one, the crew left through different doors, again leaving the Doctor alone with Rose and a handful of Ood.

“I’ve seen films and things, yeah,” Rose said quietly as they stared up at the black hole. “They say black holes are like gateways to another universe.”

The Doctor knew where that legend had come from. The Eye of Harmony hadn’t been a gateway to another universe, but it had stabilised this one and made time travel possible. He shook his head. “Not that one. It just eats.”

“Long way from home.”

Another apology was on the tip of his tongue, but it wouldn’t change the situation, and he knew it wasn’t what she wanted to hear anyway. Constantly claiming blame for what had happened wouldn’t make her feel better at all. He thought for a minute, then pointed up. “Go that way, turn right, keep going for, oh, about five hundred years, and you’ll reach the Earth.”

She pulled her new phone out of her pocket and slid it open. “No signal. That’s the first time we’ve gone out of range. Mind you, even if I could… what would I tell her? S’not like we could grow another TARDIS, not here.”

He splayed his fingers out across the table, trying to fight down the panicked feeling from losing the TARDIS. “No, they didn’t grow anywhere but on my planet. We’re kinda stuck.”

She nodded gamely. “Well, it could be worse. This lot said they’d give us a lift.”

But he wasn’t ready to be cheered up. The TARDIS was gone, the only permanent home he’d had for most of his life. “And then what?”

The ring of light surrounding the event horizon cast a halo around Rose’s hair. “I don’t know. Find a planet, get a job, live a life, same as the rest of the universe.”

She said it, but he knew it appealed as little to her as it did to him. Life on the slow path was torment after traveling through time and space. Things always seemed to happen so slowly, and in the right order.

“I’d have to settle down,” he said, purposely adding drama to make Rose laugh. “Get a house or something. A proper house with, with doors and carpets. Me, living in a house. Now that, that, that is terrifying.”

He got the laughter he was looking for. Rose smiled at him, some of the sparkle back in her eyes. “We’d have to get a mortgage,” she said in a sing-song voice.

Her simple pronoun cheered him up more than anything else, so he teasingly said, “I’m dying. That’s it. I’m dying. It is all over.”

They laughed for a minute, but the full weight of the situation was impossible to ignore, and it settled back on them. “I promised Jackie I’d always take you back home,” he said.

Rose tapped her fingers on the table, and he could tell she was debating her next words. Finally, she looked at him. “Mum doesn’t get it yet. With you, in the TARDIS, that’s home.” The Doctor stared at her for a long moment, and finally she dropped her gaze to the table and mumbled, “Everyone leaves home in the end.”

He was torn between guilt and gladness that she felt that way. Guilt won out. “Not to end up stuck here.”

“Yeah, but stuck with you, that’s not so bad,” she told him firmly, taking his hand and lacing their fingers together.

“Yeah?” he asked, squeezing her hand.

“Yes.”

Something in her eyes made him think this was the moment, millions of light years and thousands of years from her home, sitting underneath a black hole that shouldn’t exist. He opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, Rose’s phone rang.

She answered, a little hesitantly since she’d just said she had no signal. When her fear spiked and she threw the phone across the room, the Doctor tightened his hold on her other hand, trying to ground her. “What is it? What did it say?”

“It said… ‘He is awake.’ And… and the Ood earlier told me that the Beast would arise.”

The Doctor jumped up. “The Ood are telepathic,” he said. “That’s the little buzzing you’ve been feeling in the back of your head since we arrived.”

“I wondered what that was,” she muttered.

He led the way to the Ood Habitation, following the direction Danny had taken earlier. “And if something can connect to your phone when it shouldn’t have a signal, then maybe the Ood are picking up on that same message.”

They reached Ood Habitation, and he jogged down the stairs. “Evening!” he called to Danny.

“Only us,” Rose said.

Danny looked up from his terminal with a furrow between his eyes that made the Doctor feel they weren’t entirely welcome. “The mysterious couple. How are you, then? Settling in?”

“Yeah. Sorry, straight to business,” the Doctor said impatiently, looking down at the Ood lined up on benches below them. “The Ood, how do they communicate? I mean, with each other.”

“Oh, just empaths. There’s a low level telepathic field connecting them. Not that that does them much good. They’re basically a herd race. Like cattle.”

The Doctor bit back his impatience. _And how exactly does a psi-null species like humans decide how much impact another species’ telepathic field carries?_ He shoved the question aside and focused on the current issue. “This telepathic field. Can it pick up messages?”

“Because I was having dinner,” Rose explained, “and one of the Ood said something, well, odd.”

“Hmm, an odd Ood.”

The way he just dismissed everything Rose said incited the Doctor’s ire, but before he could say anything to him, Rose shot him a look that asked him to let her handle it.

She followed the young officer, looking him in the eye again. “And then I got something else on my, ah, communicator thing.”

“Oh, be fair,” Danny whined. He picked up a clipboard and turned around, shaking his head. “We’ve got whole star systems burning up around us. There’s all sorts of stray transmissions. Probably nothing.”

The Doctor and Rose looked at him in disbelief, and Danny sighed. “Look, if there was something wrong, it would show. We monitor the telepathic field. It’s the only way to look after them. They’re so stupid, they don’t even tell us when they’re ill.”

“Monitor the field,” the Doctor said, nodding to the terminal. “That’s this thing?”

“Yeah. But like I said, it’s low level telepathy. They only register basic five.”

As the Doctor watched the screen, the level started to rise. “Well, that’s not basic five. Ten, twenty. They’ve gone up to basic thirty.” The buzzing in his head grew into the constant hum of other minds.

“But they can’t!” Danny said in disbelief.

“Doctor, the Ood.”

He joined Rose at the railing; the Ood, previously sitting in a relaxed posture, where now at attention, looking at them. “What does basic thirty mean?” she asked.

Danny answered for him. “Well, it means they’re shouting, screaming inside their heads.”

“Or something’s shouting at them,” the Doctor countered. He’d had someone inside his mind, using his own voice before. He knew how it felt. It was part of the reason it had taken him so long to accept this forced connection with Rose.

“But where is it coming from?” Danny asked. “What is it saying? What did it say to you?”

“Something about the beast in the pit,” Rose told him.

“What about your communicator?” he pressed. “What did that say?”

“He is awake.”

Below them, every Ood spoke as one. “And you will worship him.”

“What the hell?” Danny said.

_Well now that is unique!_ The Doctor straightened up, staring down at the Ood. “He is awake,” the Doctor repeated.

“And you will worship him,” they said again.

“Worship who?” he demanded. “Who’s talking to you? Who is it?”

The Ood didn’t say anything else, but they stayed at attention. Danny mumbled to himself and turned back to his computer, and the Doctor pulled Rose over into a corner.

“How are you holding up?” he asked quietly.

“How do you expect—”

He brushed his fingers lightly through the hair over her temple and she understood what he meant. “Oh. It’s… ah, it’s fine.”

He ran his fingers through her hair and then rested his hand on her shoulder. “Are you sure?” he asked, checking her expression for any sign she might be holding back her own unease. “Because I can’t hear it, my barriers are too strong. But if it can get into your mind, Rose…”

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t find the words to explain what it felt like to be invaded like that. He knew she could tell how afraid he was, specifically afraid for her. If he could, he would make sure she never had a negative telepathic experience.

She reached up and placed her hand over his. “No, it’s okay.” His uncertainty must have broadcasted across all frequencies, because she smiled reassuringly. “I promise, I’ll tell you if anything happens.”

A violent tremor rocked through the base. “Emergency hull breach,” the computer announced.

“Which section?” Danny asked.

“Everyone, evacuate eleven to thirteen,” Zach said over the comms. “We’ve got a breach. The base is open. Repeat, the base is open!” Danny was already at the door, and the Doctor and Rose ran along behind him, hand in hand.

“I can’t contain the oxygen field,” Zach said. “We’re going to lose it.”

The absolute vacuum of space pulled at the Doctor, but he pressed on through the doors, keeping a firm grip on Rose’s hand. _I will not lose her to the void._

As they ran through junctions, several other crew members joined them, including Jefferson and Ida. Jefferson manned the last door open, and in just the nick of time, he grabbed Toby by the scruff of the neck and yanked him inside, closing the door behind him. 

“Breach sealed. Breach sealed,” the computer announced in the same matter-of-fact voice it had told them their lives were in peril.

“Everyone all right? What happened? What was it?” the Doctor called out

Jefferson was leaning against the door, trying to catch his breath. “Hull breach. We were open to the elements. Another couple of minutes and we’d have been inspecting that black hole at close quarters.”

“That wasn’t a quake. What caused it?” The Doctor had a feeling he wasn’t going to like the answer.

Zach’s voice interrupted them. “We’ve lost sections eleven to thirteen. Everyone all right?”

“We’ve got everyone here except Scooti. Scooti, report,” Jefferson called out over the comms. The lack of response made everyone edgy, and he tried again. “Scooti Manista? That’s an order. Report.”

“She’s all right,” Zach said. “I’ve picked up her biochip. She’s in Habitation Three. Better go and check if she’s not responding. She might be unconscious.” Some of the tension left his voice. “How about that, eh? We survived.” The Doctor had a sinking feeling that might be a premature statement.

Jefferson pushed off the wall and led the way down the corridor. “Habitation Three. Come on. I don’t often say this, but I think we could all do with a drink. Come on.”

Toby was still on the floor, looking shaken. The Doctor hadn’t liked the man earlier, but he was the one who’d been closest to the accident. He crouched down to meet his eye, hoping to learn something about what had caused the hull breach. “What happened?”

“I don’t—I don’t know,” Toby stammered. “I was working and then I can’t remember. All that noise. The room was falling apart. There was no air.”

“Come on. Up you get,” Rose said, pulling the man to his feet. “Come and have some protein one.”

The Doctor blinked. “Oh, you’ve gone native.”

“Oi, don’t knock it. It’s nice. Protein one with just a dash of three.” The cheeky way she clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth lightened his mood, the way her humour always did.

They were the last to arrive in Habitation Three. Most of the crew were there, but not Scooti. Everyone was in the middle of the room, talking over each other.

“Nowhere here,” Jefferson finally said, bringing the group to order. “Zach? We’ve got a problem. Scooti’s still missing.”

“It says Habitation Three.”

The Doctor’s eyes drifted up to the still open shutters.

“Yeah, well, that’s where I am,” Jefferson said, “and I’m telling you, she’s not here.”

“I’ve found her,” the Doctor said soberly.

“Oh my God,” Rose whispered.

Scooti’s body drifted in space above them, twisting as the gravitational pull of the black hole drew her in. When he looked at her, all the Doctor could see was Rose in the same position—if he’d let go of her hand earlier, he might have lost her too.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

Jefferson cleared his throat. “Captain. Report Officer Scootori Manista PKD, deceased. Forty three K two point one.”

“She was twenty. Twenty years old,” Ida murmured, and closed the shutters.

Guilt shot through the Doctor. Rose was just twenty-two. Twenty-two, and stranded in an impossible place because of him.

Jefferson was the first to offer something resembling a eulogy. “For how should man die better than facing fearful odds? For the ashes of his father and the temples of his gods.” The quote from Horatius had never seemed more appropriate.

The constant hum that had rumbled beneath the floor suddenly quit. “It’s stopped,” Ida said.

Rose moved over to the Doctor’s side. “What was that? What was it?”

“The drill,” he told her.

Ida looked like she couldn’t believe what she was saying. “We’ve stopped drilling. We’ve made it. Point Zero.”

Everyone was quiet for a moment, registering the strange sensation of still floors. “All right,” Zach said. “Alpha team, get some rest. Beta team should be coming on any minute, and I need you at your best when you go down that shaft tomorrow, Ida.”

Rose’s lips turned up in a faint smile. The science officer’s mouth had been opened to argue with her commander, and she snapped it shut.

“You heard the captain,” Jefferson said. “Time for bed. Ah, Doctor, Rose…” His voice trailed off in the face of the domestic task of finding sleeping quarters for their guests.

“I’ll show them where they can sleep,” Ida offered, and he nodded in agreement.

Rose followed her out of Habitation Three, glancing over her shoulder to make sure the Doctor was coming. His hands were shoved deep in his pockets and the little furrow in his brow that she’d nicknamed Guilt Gulch was showing.

“We don’t exactly have guest quarters,” Ida was saying as they passed into Area Nineteen. “And most unoccupied rooms are being used as work spaces or storage. But there is one that should be empty, with a bed.”

“Yeah, a bed would be nice,” Rose said, the emotions of the day wearing her down.

Ida pushed open the door. “There’s an attached toilet, no shower though. I’ll go get a set of clean sheets from Laundry. I’m afraid I don’t have anything to offer as far as sleepwear goes.”

The bed was a little wider than a single back home, and Rose sat down on the edge of it while they waited for Ida to return.

“It’s not your fault,” she told the Doctor.

“We could have left as soon as we landed. The TARDIS felt off; we both knew it.”

“Yeah, and the idea of turning around and leaving was a big joke to us,” she countered. “I laughed first, remember? This was my choice, Doctor.”

Ida returned before Rose could say anything further. “Here you go. The alarm will sound over the PA in six hours. We’ll meet back in Habitation Three for breakfast, and then I expect Zach will have marching orders for us.”

“Thanks, Ida,” Rose said, taking the sheets from her.

The woman closed the door behind her, and Rose shook out one of the sheets and spread it across the bed. To her surprise, the Doctor took the other side, tugging at it until it was straight and then helping with the corners.

“I’m gonna get ready for bed,” Rose said when the bed was made, and the Doctor acknowledged it with a terse nod.

Closed in the tiny toilet, Rose felt a momentary pang of fear that this forced intimacy on top of his obvious guilt would drive him away again. They’d been stuck sharing a bed before, but not since they’d gained an empathic connection. She reached out hesitantly, unsure she wanted to know how he was feeling.

But the vulnerability she’d come to associate with him pulling away was absent. She drew in a breath of relief, even as she rolled her eyes at his overpowering guilt. Satisfied he wasn’t going to bolt, she stripped down to her vest and washed her face, jumping when the cold water hit her skin.

When she stepped back into the bedroom, the lights were dim and he was lying on his back. “Hey,” she said softly. He opened his arms, and she crawled into them. “This is a new experience for the scrapbook,” she said lightly.

His hand tightened momentarily on her arm, but he didn’t say anything. “Doctor, look,” she said, shifting her head so she could see his face. “The TARDIS is still out there. We might still find her.”

“She’s all I have left,” he whispered. _Of Gallifrey,_ he didn’t say—and he didn’t need to. Rose had known exactly what he meant when he’d told Zach the TARDIS was all he had, and her heart ached for him.

She ached for herself, too. The ship was her home—that wasn’t just something she’d told the Doctor so he’d feel better about them being stranded. Rose ran her hand down his arm, offering what comfort she could. “You’re going down the shaft with Ida tomorrow, aren’t you?”

He nodded. “If there’s something down there… a clue as to what this planet is, maybe something… it’s the best chance we have of finding the TARDIS.”

She settled back down, resting her head on his shoulder. “S’pose there’s no chance of talking you out of it.”

“Are you sure your mental barriers are holding?” the Doctor asked.

Rose accepted the change of subject. “So far,” she said. “Maybe it’s not that strong of a force, whatever it is? I mean, the Ood probably don’t have any sort of barrier at all. They’re just always open.”

“Constant receivers,” the Doctor said. “How do they avoid psychic feedback? Anyway, that could be the answer, but I’d feel safer if…”

Rose felt his hand drift to her temple. “Doctor, it’s fine!”

“Rose, please let me—”

“Why are you pushing this so hard?”

“Because it’s my fault you’re telepathic in the first place,” he said sharply, and she felt the guilt behind that statement.

The room was quiet for a moment while Rose processed that. They both knew she wouldn’t be telepathic if he hadn’t gone into the room where he’d locked away her memories of being Bad Wolf, but this… this went deeper than that. “Is that what you think?” she asked finally.

He snorted. “You wouldn’t be telepathic if you hadn’t looked into the heart of the TARDIS. You wouldn’t have done that if I hadn’t needed you to rescue me. It’s not that hard a leap to make, Rose.”

“Except you’re missing a step!” she said, sitting up so she could glare down at him. “ **I** looked into the heart of the TARDIS. **I** wanted to save you.”

His forehead was drawn up into multiple furrows, and she raised a hand to smooth them out. “It was my choice, Doctor,” she said. “An’ also, you still seem to think I should be upset about the… changes, the telepathy and stuff, even though I’ve told you how right it feels.” He frowned up at her, and she sighed. “Doctor, someday you’ve gotta trust that when I say I like this life, I mean I like everything about it. Not just the fun parts. And you’ve gotta trust that I know my own mind.”

The room was quiet for a moment. Rose could feel his emotions shifting, some of the guilt easing as he finally accepted what she was saying. “Rose Tyler, what did I ever do to deserve you?” the Doctor asked softly.

She grinned. “Just got lucky I guess,” she said.

He chuckled. “Yeah, I guess I did.” He bit his lip. “I’d still feel better if you’d let me reinforce your shields,” he admitted. “The risk might be small, but why take it if you don’t have to?”

He had a point, so Rose nodded slightly and he raised a hand to her temple. A moment later, she felt the familiar sensation of him inside her mind, and she closed her eyes.

The buzz of the Ood faded as he worked. “All done,” he said a few minutes later, and she settled down to sleep.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

When the alarm rang in the morning, the Doctor was already up and sitting at the tiny desk. “Good morning!” he said cheerfully. “You humans and your sleep patterns.”

Rose blinked and sat up in bed, allowing the covers to pool around her waist. She’d only gotten five hours of sleep, but she felt fully rested. “You could have gone down by yourself,” she pointed out.

“And leave you on your own? Who knows where you’d wander off to!”

The Doctor’s smile stretched unnaturally wide across his face, reinforcing the waves of unease buffeting off of him. Rose held his gaze, wondering if he would drop the pretence on his own, or if she would have to call him on it.

The humour disappeared from the Doctor’s face. “Can’t you feel it, Rose?” he said quietly.

Rose frowned and focused inward, on the time senses she wasn’t yet used to having. A discordant note jangled against them, and she realised it had been there for days, but she hadn’t understood it. “Yeah. What is it?”

He huffed out a sigh and ran his hands through his hair. “I don’t know. I just… it feels like someone or something is trying to…”

When he stumbled over the words again, Rose reached for his hand and put it on her temple. As their connection deepened, she smiled up at him and thought, _Trying to do what, Doctor?_

He closed his eyes, and she could feel how much he hated whatever he was about to say. _To take you from me._

_So you’re what, not gonna let me out of your sight?_

She expected him to roll his eyes or laugh it off, but instead, he opened his eyes and removed his hand from her temple. “At vulnerable moments like this, not unless I have to.” Rose opened her mouth, but he shook his head and she nodded for him to speak. “This isn’t about trust in your abilities. This is… there’s someone or something that _wants us pulled apart_. I don’t know why, but it feels wrong. You said you feel it too.”

The slight wrongness of it was clearer to Rose now. Even thinking about it made her cringe, like hearing nails scraping across the blackboard. “Well give me a minute to get changed, and then we can get something to eat.” He nodded slowly, relief and understanding shining in his eyes, and Rose retreated into the loo.

Most of Alpha shift were already in Habitation Three when they arrived, getting plates of food from the Ood. After her experience the previous night, Rose didn’t really want to get too close, but that wasn’t an option. Thankfully, this time she got her food without any Ood-ities, and took a seat next to the Doctor.

Zach stood in the middle of the room once they were all assembled. “All right people, this is it,” he announced. “You all know the drill reached Point Zero last night. We finally have a chance to achieve our mission.”

_And make the lives we’ve lost count._ The unspoken words hung in the air over a brief moment of silence.

Zach cleared his throat. “Danny, I want you to monitor the Ood. We’ll be keeping them in Ood Habitation, but we need to know if anything unusual happens. Jefferson, you’ll be running the controls on the capsule from the drilling station while I stay in the control room.”

Ida shifted in her seat, and Zach nodded. “You’ve got the fun job, Ida. We’ll send you down in a capsule. Toby, you stay in the drilling station in case Ida finds something of cultural significance.”

Everyone nodded. “Doctor, Rose…” Zach faltered. “Do what you like I suppose, but make sure you don’t get in the way of any essential functions.”

The group split. “I’m going with Ida to suit up,” the Doctor said quietly. “You stay with Zach.”

Rose nodded and followed the captain out of the room. “D’you mind if I just go with you?” she asked. “I’d like to see the expedition, from your point of view.”

He nodded as they made their way through the doors. “Like I said, as long as you don’t get in the way.”

The drilling room was already a hive of activity. Several crew members Rose didn’t recognise were moving around, getting equipment ready for the trip into the centre of the planet.

“All non essential Oods to be confined,” Zach ordered over the comms. Rose understood the order, the fear behind it, but she didn’t like it.

Ida came in, dressed in an orange space suit. She moved quickly through her stations. “Capsule established. All systems functioning. The mineshaft is go. Bring systems online now.”

Rose’s eyes focused on the door Ida had entered through, and a moment later the Doctor appeared. He strode across the catwalk to Zach, helmet in hand. “Reporting as a volunteer for the expeditionary force.”

Zach shook his head. “Doctor, this is breaking every single protocol. We don’t even know who you are.”

“Yeah, but you trust me, don’t you?” Rose chuckled and wanted to tell Zach to give up now. “And you can’t let Ida go down there on her own. Go on. Look me in the eye. Yes you do, I can see it. Trust.”

Zach heaved a resigned sigh. “I should be going down.”

The Doctor shook his head. “The Captain doesn’t lead the mission. He stays here, in charge.”

“Not much good at it, am I?” Zach returned, tacitly admitting the Doctor had won his point. “Positions! We’re going down in two. Everyone, positions! Mr. Jefferson! I want maximum system enhancement.”

Zach left the drilling station and the crew members moved to follow their captain’s orders, but Rose’s gaze was fixed on the Doctor, who was inspecting the controls on his suit. “Oxygen, nitro balance, gravity. It’s ages since I wore one of these.”

She tugged on the front of the suit. “I want that spacesuit back in one piece, you got that?”

“Yes sir.” The words were flippant, but the look on his face told her he understood all her concern, her worry, and…

Rose bit her lip and watched him put his helmet on. “It’s funny, because people back home think that space travel’s going to be all…” She took a deep breath, trying to control her emotions. “…whizzing about and teleports and anti gravity, but it’s not, is it? It’s tough.”

His fingers laced through hers, and even though it felt different with the bulky gloves he was wearing, the gesture gave her the same comfort it always did. “I’ll see you later.”

The promise in his eyes did more to reassure her than anything else, and she finally smiled. “Not if I see you first,” she returned. Then, on a whim, or because she couldn’t stand the thought of him going off on a mission like this without something, she pulled his head down and placed a kiss on top of his helmet.

The Doctor squeezed her hand, and then Zach’s voice came over the comms. “Capsule active!”

The Doctor and Ida walked down the catwalk toward the capsule as Zach started a countdown. Rose watched anxiously as Jefferson sealed them inside, and then when the count reached zero, Zach ordered its release.

As soon as the door was shut, Rose grabbed the comm, needing to have something in her hands that could connect her to the Doctor. She twisted the cord around the fingers of one hand while she waved goodbye to him with the other. _Be safe_ , she begged with the gesture, and his little half wave in return told her he would try.

When they were out of sight, she followed the cord back to the comm station and watched the computer readout of the capsule’s depth. The larger the number got, the harder she found it to breathe. The steady feeling of time pulsing around her suddenly went haywire as the possibility of an endless separation from the Doctor became more likely.

Rose felt like a vice was slowly tightening on her rib cage, squeezing all the air out of her lungs. The rest of the team on the drilling platform were too focused on the capsule to notice her distress, but dual waves of calm washed over her from the Doctor and the TARDIS. All three of them knew this was the most serious situation they’d been in together, but Rose let them reassure her that they would make it out.

“Breathe, Rose,” the Doctor said, and Mr. Jefferson turned to look at her. “Take in a breath—that’s it, now hold it for four seconds.” Even with her newly acquired ability to keep track of time, the seconds seemed to take hours. “Okay, now let it out, but not all at once. Slowly.”

Some of the tightness in her chest eased, and Rose repeated the exercise a few times until the panic attack receded.

“I’m sure your Doctor and Ida will be fine, Miss Tyler,” Mr. Jefferson said.

Rose hated the slightly patronising tone in his voice, but how could she explain that for a moment, she’d seen a timeline where she never saw the Doctor again? Where he was trapped below the surface while she was taken away by force? It was wrong, so wrong—she’d never leave him behind, not ever, but somehow she’d seen it happen. 

She shook the image from her head with effort and focused on the present. “You’ve gone beyond the oxygen field,” Zach told the Doctor and Ida. “You’re on your own.”

Zach’s words, so close on the heels of her panic attack, pushed a weak laugh from Rose, and once her airways were open, oxygen naturally flowed back in. “Don’t forget to breathe,” she told the Doctor, letting him hear she was doing better. “Breathing’s good.”

“Rose, stay off the comm,” Zach ordered.

“No chance,” Rose muttered.

Despite the situation, that very Rose-like response brought a slight smile to the Doctor’s lips. He’d been worried a moment ago when he could tell she was on the verge of a panic attack, but they’d staved that off together.

The telepathic presence of the Ood surged in his mind, but before he could consider what might have triggered the change, the capsule’s descent into the shaft picked up speed until it was careening wildly out of control toward the planet core.

He and Ida braced themselves for the inevitable impact, but somehow when it came, it was more of a thud than a crash. _At the speed we were going, we should have sustained a lot more damage._

And their friends topside knew it too. “Doctor? Doctor, are you all right?”

“Ida, report to me,” Zach ordered.

Ida and the Doctor exchanged wide-eyed looks as they shook the rough landing out of their limbs. The Doctor opened the door and they stepped out into the dark. “It’s all right. We’ve made it. Getting out of the capsule now.”

He could hear Rose’s sigh of relief and a muffled comment from Jefferson, but he was far more interested in the sense he had that he was getting close to the TARDIS.

“What’s it like down there?” Rose asked.

The Doctor shone his torch around, trying to take in their surroundings. “It’s hard to tell. Some sort of cave. Cavern. It’s massive.”

“Well, this should help,” Ida said, pulling a familiar object from her back. “Gravity globe.” She tossed it in the air, and as soon as it began to fall, it hovered in place and lit the entire cavern.

The sight of a subterranean temple struck them both speechless for a minute. Ida sucked in a breath and said, “That’s… that’s… my god, that’s beautiful.”

The space was dominated by a door hewn into the rock face with columns on either side. Off to one side was a stone statue, posed as if it were guarding something. As he and Ida walked toward it, a thought occurred to him. “Rose, you can tell Toby we’ve found his civilisation.” They knew nothing about this planet or its original inhabitants, but if the race that excavated this cavern and built that statue weren’t the ones who spoke the language Toby had found, the Doctor would give up bananas for a week.

“Oi, Toby,” Rose said. “Sounds like you’ve got plenty of work.”

“Concentrate now, people,” Zach chided them. “Keep on the mission. Ida, what about the power source?”

Ida looked at her watch and tapped a button on the face to turn on the built-in energy metre. “We’re close. Energy signature indicates north northwest. Are you getting pictures up there?”

“There’s too much interference. We’re in your hands.”

They bit back a sigh at Zach’s answer, but kept walking. “Well, we’ve come this far. There’s no turning back,” Ida said bracingly.

The strengthening telepathic presence had the Doctor on edge, and he couldn’t contain his reaction to Ida’s statement. “Oh, did you have to?” the Doctor whined. “No turning back? That’s almost as bad as, ‘Nothing can possibly go wrong,’ or, ‘This is going to be the best Christmas Walford’s ever had.’” The EastEnders reference was purely for Rose’s benefit, and he was rewarded with a burst of amusement.

“Are you finished?” Ida asked, apparently not as appreciative of his genre savvy moment.

“Yeah. Finished.” _But really—no turning back?_ Ida gestured over her shoulder, and they kept moving toward the power source.

“Captain, sir. There’s something happening with the Ood.”

The last of the Doctor’s whimsical mood disappeared. The buzzing in his head had reached a constant level loud enough to be distracting, rather than merely annoying.

“What are they doing?” Zach asked, and the Doctor nearly growled at the skepticism in the man’s voice. The Ood might be docile (naturally or via engineering), but they were still complex organisms. Why did humans insist any physiology different from theirs could be easily understood?

“They’re staring at me,” Danny said. “I’ve told them to stop, but they won’t.”

“Danny you’re a big boy. I think you can take being stared at.”

The Doctor rolled his eyes. _Except disobeying a direct order should be almost impossible for an Ood, if your perception of them is accurate._ Not to mention, he’d been on the receiving end of the Ood’s uncanny stare the previous night. He didn’t blame Danny for being unnerved.

Ida gestured at him, and he’d just reached her side when Danny continued his explanation. They stared at their find, then each other, and waited for Danny and Zach’s conversation to end so they could report on it.

“But the telepathic field, sir,” Danny protested. “It’s at Basic 100. I’ve checked. There isn’t any fault. It’s definitely 100.”

“But that’s impossible.”

“What’s basic one hundred mean?” Rose asked.

The Doctor was still fitting this information into what he already knew, so Danny beat him to the answer. “They should be dead.”

The conversation continued, but the Doctor tuned it out. Several oddities finally made sense. The Ood were telepathic receivers with no boundaries. They’d be the perfect vehicle for a stronger psychic presence—and a mind strong enough to take over a group en masse would be able to block itself from other telepaths. He’d said last night that it was like the Ood had someone shouting at them—what if he/she/it were shouting _through_ them instead?

And the giant covered hole he and Ida were staring at only added to his trepidation. “What do you think it is, Doctor?”

He walked around it slowly, shining the torch on some of the markings around the edge, trying to figure out what they mean. “Oh, I don’t know. It could be covering anything really. A bit large for a well I suppose, but who knows? Maybe the Valtino built a tunnel to the centre the planet, and this is the entrance.”

A sequence of symbols he’d seen in Toby’s office jumped out at him, and he bent over to run his fingers over the relief. “Only thing is, doors leading into the depths never seem to turn out well in the end. Look at Moria—the Dwarves just wanted mithril and instead they found a Balrog.”

Rose’s anger and fear caught his attention, and he realised he’d maybe done too good a job at blocking out the comms chatter. “Is everything all right up there?”

“Yeah, yeah,” she said quickly, and he rolled his eyes. If she thought he was going to believe her…

Zach and Danny both chimed in, each less convincing than the last. The Doctor knew something was going on with the Ood, but on second thought, maybe it was better if he didn’t know the details, since he was stuck with no way to help Rose.

“We’ve found something,” the Doctor said, bringing the focus back to the large cover stone. “It looks like metal. Like some sort of seal.” He leapt up onto it and hopped a bit, trying to get a feel for its composition. “I’ve got a nasty feeling the word might be trapdoor. Not a good word, trapdoor. Never met a trapdoor I liked.”

Ida spoke up, continuing the narration of their exploration. “The edge is covered with those symbols.”

“Do you think it opens?” Zach asked.

“That’s what trapdoors tend to do,” the Doctor said.

“Trapdoor doesn’t do it justice,” Ida countered. “It’s massive, Zach. About thirty feet in diameter.”

_So it’s a large trapdoor._

“Any way of opening it?” Zach asked again.

“I don’t know. I can’t see any sort of mechanism.”

“I suppose that’s the writing,” the Doctor said, rocking back on his heels. “It’ll tell us what to do. The letters that defy translation.”

“Toby, did you get anywhere with decoding it?” Zach asked.

“Toby, they need to know that lettering,” Rose said. “Does it make any sort of sense?”

The Doctor could suddenly feel it, that strange telepathic presence that was pulling all the strings. “I know what it says,” Toby said, only it wasn’t his voice. It didn’t sound like him, and the thoughts weren’t his.

“Then tell them,” Rose snapped, and the Doctor sent her a mauve alert.

_Be careful, Rose!_

“When did you work that out?” Jefferson asked—a fair question.

Rose’s fear spiked, and the Doctor was halfway to the capsule before Toby started talking. She was terrified, and on the edges of his mind he suddenly saw dozens of ways they might be separated forever.

Toby’s words sent a chill down his spine. “These are the words of the Beast. And he has woken. He is the heart that beats in the darkness. He is the blood that will never cease. And now he will rise.”

_He is awake._ The Doctor had a fleeting image of a shadow engulfed in flames. _The Balrog of Morgoth is awake._

“Officer, stand down,” Jefferson ordered. “Stand down.”

“What is it? What’s he done? What’s happening? Rose, what’s going on?” _Talk to me!_

“Jefferson?” Zach asked. “Report. Report!”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, a few anvil sized hints here--and there are more to come. But really, the whole second half of series 2 was one long foreshadowing.


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing stories where the Doctor and Rose are split up gets tricky, because you can hop back and forth between POVs a lot more quickly and frequently on screen than you can in text. So, this chapter is mostly Rose versus the Ood--most of the scenes with the Doctor and Ida under the surface are in the next chapter.

Chapter 21

Rose stared while Jefferson tried to control Toby, but the Doctor’s panic broke through and she raised the mic to her mouth to narrate what she was seeing. “He’s come out in those symbols all over his face. They’re all over him.”

She watched in frozen horror as Toby slowly advanced on Jefferson. “Mr. Jefferson. Tell me, sir. Did your wife ever forgive you?”

“I don’t know what you mean,” Jefferson said, but Rose could tell from the sudden tension in his neck that he knew exactly what Toby meant.

Toby tilted his head and a taunting light entered his red eyes. “Let me tell you a secret. She never did.”

“Officer, you stand down and be confined,” Jefferson ordered, but there was no authority in his voice.

“Or what?” Toby asked mockingly.

“Or under the strictures of Condition Red, I am authorised to shoot you.”

The crew person standing next to Jefferson was shaking so badly Rose could see her rifle moving—not exactly the kind of front that would be guaranteed to make the enemy back down.

Toby smiled slowly. “But how many can you kill?”

Rose stiffened at the threat. Toby’s body pulled taut, and his mouth opened in an almost silent scream as the writing floated off his face. The wisps of ink drifted over to the Ood, who one by one stiffened as if they’d been shocked.

When they opened their eyes, she wasn’t surprised to see them glowing red. “We are the Legion of the Beast,” they said in one voice.

The Doctor and Zach both demanded to know what was going on. The deep, instinctive fear she was getting from the Doctor was stronger than anything she’d picked up on before, and she knew there was more going on than she realised. Something telepathic, something he understood because of his experience…

As one, the Ood held out their communication balls. “The Legion shall be many, and the Legion shall be few.”

Rose finally registered that she was the one holding the mic. “It’s the Ood.”

Jefferson raised his wrist to his mouth. “Sir, we have a contamination in the livestock.”

“Doctor, I don’t know what it is. It’s like they’re possessed.” Suddenly she realised that’s exactly what it was. The Ood’s minds had been invaded with a force so great, it suppressed their consciousnesses. Then this person, or Beast, or whatever, was able to control them.

“They won’t listen to us,” Jefferson added.

The Ood continued. “He has woven himself in the fabric of your life since the dawn of time. Some may call him Abaddon. Some may call him Krop Tor. Some may call him Satan or Lucifer.”

Rose listened in fascination to their recitation, dimly registering Danny’s announcement that the Ood in Ood Habitation had been similarly possessed. “Or the Bringer of Despair, the Deathless Prince, the Bringer of Night. These are the words that shall set him free.”

The Ood started to advance, and Rose hurriedly whispered to the Doctor. “Doctor, the Ood are attacking. We’re going to have to leave the drilling station. It’s not safe. Don’t come back up until we tell you it’s safe. Stay down there!”

Then she had to drop the mic as they backed up to the door. She knew the Doctor wouldn’t want to stay down below when he was needed up here, but she fervently hoped he would stay out of harm’s way—just this once.

The Ood kept coming. “I shall become manifest. I shall walk in might. My Legions shall swarm across the worlds.”

Rose, Jefferson, and the officers backed up the stairs to the door. As they reached the top, the whole planet shook in an earthquake stronger than anything Rose had ever experienced.

“I am the sin and the temptation and the desire. I am the pain and the loss and the death of all.”

Rose shuddered. The words had been creepy enough coming from Toby, but with all the Ood reciting together, they somehow seemed even more menacing.

“Get that door open!” Jefferson shouted.

The planet continued to rock, and Zach shouted at them over the comms. “The gravity field, it’s going! We’re losing orbit! We’re going to fall into the black hole!”

The immediacy of the Ood problem in front of Rose superseded the problem of the gravity field. “I have been imprisoned for eternity. But no more.”

They were trapped against the door. “Open fire!” Jefferson yelled, and Rose covered her head against the weapons fire.

The Ood fell to the ground without a sound, just as the severe quake stabilised. Rose jumped back down to the catwalk and ran to the comm. “Doctor? Doctor, can you hear me? Doctor, Ida, are you there?”

She heard the hissing of a door opening and looked over her shoulder in fear. “It’s me!” Danny yelled, holding his hands up against Jefferson’s weapon. “But they’re coming.” He worked fast to shut the door again. “It’s the Ood. They’ve gone mad.”

“How many of them?” Jefferson asked.

“All of them! All fifty!”

“Danny, out of the way. Out of the way!” Danny tried to block the door, but Jefferson shoved him out of the way and started opening the door, a member of his security detail standing by, pointing her weapon at the door.

“But they’re armed!” Danny exclaimed. “It’s the interface device. I don’t know how, but they’re using it as a weapon.”

Jefferson ignored the warning and opened the door. Over his shoulder, Rose spied a group of Ood, their eyes frighteningly red. To her horror, the Ood in front held his interface device to the young crew member’s head and electrocuted her. Jefferson fired enough shots to drive the Ood back from the door, then pulled it closed and spun the wheel.

“Jefferson, what’s happening there?” Zach asked.

Jefferson looked down at the readings on his weapon. “I’ve got very little ammunition, sir. How about you?”

“All I’ve got is a bolt gun. With er, all of one bolt. I could take out a grand total of one Ood. Fat lot of good that is.”

Rose tapped her fingers nervously against the mic. All her instincts told her to run, but even if the Doctor weren’t trapped beneath the planet, they were backed up against a wall—literally and figuratively. They had no way to get their friends back, they had no way to fight the Ood, and there was no way out of the drilling station.

Jefferson nodded curtly. “Given the emergency, I recommend strategy nine.”

“Strategy Nine.” There was disbelief in Zach’s tone, and Rose wondered what exactly Strategy Nine was. “Agreed. Right, we need to get everyone together. Rose? What about Ida and the Doctor? Any word?”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

_That earthquake wasn’t just some natural phenomenon,_ the Doctor realised as he stood back up. He could feel the subtle shift in the rotation of the planet and knew their position in space had drifted just a hair closer to the black hole. His connection to the TARDIS pulsed mauve; she knew the danger as well as he did.

“Well, we made it,” Ida said shakily, dusting some gravel from the rock fall off her suit. “Oxygen masks intact and all.”

“Yeah, but I don’t think that’s the last we’re going to hear from the Beast,” the Doctor muttered. “Come on, let’s see if that last quake did anything to the temple or the trapdoor.”

“I don’t know why you keep calling it a trapdoor,” Ida complained.

“Because it feels like a trap,” he retorted, jogging to the edge of the stone cover. “Especially since it’s magically opened.”

“Oh my god,” she said, staring down into the chasm. “We need to tell Zach about this.”

“Hang on, there’s a thought,” the Doctor said. “How come we haven’t heard from them in over 90 seconds?” He checked the mic controls on his hip and groaned. “Switched off. How much to you want to bet…”

As soon as he toggled the switch back on, Rose’s voice filled the airwaves. “I can’t get a reply. Just nothing. I keep trying, but it’s—”

The Doctor cut in, eager to erase the fear he’d caused. “No, sorry, I’m fine. Still here.”

She let out a huff of air in exasperation. “You could’ve said, you stupid—”

Her invective was so loud, it sent a burst of feedback over the comms. “Whoa. Careful!” the Doctor replied, apologising silently at the same time. “Anyway, it’s both of us. Me and Ida. Hello. But the seal opened up. It’s gone. All we’ve got left is this chasm.”

“How deep is it?” Zach asked.

“Can’t tell. It looks like it goes down forever.”

“The pit is open,” Rose said. “That’s what the voice said.”

“But there’s nothing,” Zach said. “I mean there’s nothing coming out?”

“No, no. No sign of the Beast.”

“It said Satan,” Rose said before she could stop herself.

“Come on, Rose. Keep it together.” Just like the moment yesterday when they’d realised they were trapped, the need to ease some of her panic made it easier to hold his own at bay.

It didn’t seem to work as well this time though. “Is there no such thing? Doctor, Doctor tell me there’s no such thing.”

There was a sort of resigned note in her voice that he hated. She knew she was asking for something he couldn’t give, no matter how much he wanted to. Did Satan exist? Not as an opposite to any god, but apparently there was an alien force that bore a strong resemblance to that personification of evil, and he seemed to be pulling the strings right now. Rose knew that as well as he did.

Zach interrupted their conversation. “Ida? I recommend you withdraw. Immediately.”

“But we’ve come all this way,” Ida protested.

“Okay, that was an order. Withdraw. When that thing opened, the whole planet’s shifted. One more inch and we fall into the black hole. So this thing stops right now.”

“But it’s not much better up there with the Ood.”

“I’m initiating Strategy Nine, so I need the two of you back up top immediately, no ar—”

Zach’s voice turned to static, and Ida looked at the Doctor. “What do you think?”

He raised his eyebrows. “I think he gave an order.”

“Yeah but…” She gestured at the cavern. “What do you think?”

She wanted his position as a scientist, but it was hard to focus on anything but Rose’s desperate fear and hope and all those possibilities where they were permanently separated. Still, he had to try. Maybe staying really was worth the risk.

He put his foot on the rim of the pit and looked down into the darkness. “It said, ‘I am temptation.’” _The temptation to stay? To not take their last chance to leave?_

Ida sighed. “Well if there’s something in there, why is it still hiding?” she asked, though the slightly wobbly note to her voice suggested she wasn’t completely sold on the idea of staying either—no matter what her words suggested.

Ah, but she’d forgotten the same mythology she’d told them about the day before. The planet was a trap. “Maybe we opened the prison but not the cell.”

She squared her shoulders. “We should go down. I’d go. What about you?”

The indomitable human spirit spurred on his own sense of adventure, and for a moment, all he saw was a place to explore. “Oh—oh, in a second…”

As soon as he said it, he felt a faint hint of satisfaction from that telepathic presence still hovering at the edges of his mind. “But then again, that is so human. Where angels fear to tread.”

He tried, but he couldn’t bring himself to take a step back. The pit was luring him in, even though he knew it was probably a trap “Even now, standing on the edge. It’s that feeling you get, eh?” He looked at Ida, but she was fixated on the pit. “Right at the back of your head, that impulse—that strange little impulse. That mad voice saying, ‘Go on. Go on. Go on. Go over, go on.’”

This time he knew the enemy knew what he was thinking and liked it. He braced himself for a moment, tightening his own barriers as much as he could, though he had a feeling it was a pointless exercise.

“Maybe it’s relying on that.” He looked at her again, and this time, she met his gaze. “For once in my life, Officer Scott, I’m going to say… retreat.”

He pushed back from the pit, feeling equal parts disbelief and relief. It was the right choice; he was sure of it. Whatever was down there wasn’t worth the risk of staying, and it certainly wasn’t worth risking Rose’s life for. Still, he knew he’d always wonder what secrets the pit held.

The TARDIS hummed her approval, even as he opened up their link to apologise. He had no guarantee of finding her below, and she wanted him to keep Rose safe. A picture of Rose standing on a beach with a tear-stained face teased the edges of his time senses, and he shuddered and pushed it aside.

Any disbelief he might have felt at making the safe choice for once disappeared in the face of that future. “Rose, we’re coming back.”

Rose drew in a shaky breath. She knew how close a call that had been. “Best news I’ve heard all day,” she told him truthfully.

Jefferson reloaded his firearm. “What are you doing?” Rose asked. There weren’t any Ood in sight.

His aim was steady as he pointed the barrel of the gun at Toby, but it was fear, not anger or hatred she saw in his eyes. “He’s infected. He brought that thing on board. You saw it.”

“Are you going to start shooting your own people now?” Rose slowly moved so she was positioned in between Toby and the security officer. “Is that what you’re going to do? Is it?”

“If necessary.”

Toby cowered against the wall, and Rose glared at Jefferson. “Well then, you’ll have to shoot me if necessary, so what’s it going to be?” She saw Jefferson’s uncertainty and pressed her advantage, crouching down next to Toby. “Look at his face. Whatever it was, is gone. It passed into the Ood. You saw it happen. He’s clean.”

“Any sign of trouble, I’ll shoot him.” Jefferson turned around and walked over to Danny.

“Are you all right?” Rose asked Toby.

“Yeah. I don’t know.”

“Can you remember anything?”

“Just, it was so angry.” Toby’s face was white and his lips trembled. “It was fury and rage and death. It was him. It was the Devil.”

Rose tugged at the young man’s arms. “Come here,” she said, and he clutched at her desperately when she offered him a hug.

When Toby loosened his grip on her, she got to her feet and went back to the comm station. “What’s Strategy Nine?” she asked Danny.

He gulped. “Everyone gathers in the control room, and Zach’ll lock it down. After that, he opens the airlocks.”

“But there’s not room in the control room for everyone,” Rose said.

“There’s room for all the humans,” Jefferson told her.

“What? You can’t! First you enslave them, and then you just slaughter them like… like they’ve got mad cow disease or something?” She turned to Danny. “I thought you were the head of the ethics committee or something. Is this what they teach you in ethics class now?”

“Rose, you saw those things,” Danny said hysterically. “They’re not, they’re not even Ood anymore.”

Ida’s voice interrupted the debate. “Okay, we’re in. Bring us up.”

Jefferson switched on the capsule controls. “Ascension in three, two, one.” He flipped the switch, but instead of the cranking of the cable pulling them back to the surface, the power went out.

Out of the dark, the voice of the Beast echoed over the comms. “This is the darkness. This is my domain.” The screen flickered and showed a black and white picture of Ood. “You little things that live in the light, clinging to your feeble suns which die in the—”

“That’s not the Ood,” Zach said, cutting off the voices for a moment. “Something’s talking through them.”

“—only the darkness remains.”

“This is Captain Zachary Cross Flane of Sanctuary Base Six, representing the Torchwood archive. You will identify yourself.”

“You know my name.”

There was another mind drifting along the edges of Rose’s telepathic sense where she was used to feeling only the TARDIS and the Doctor. They both felt safe and warm, like home, but this… She shivered. This was pure malice.

“What do you want?”

“You will die here. All of you. This planet is your grave.”

On the floor, Toby wrapped his arms around himself and rocked back and forth, muttering, “It’s him,” repeatedly.

“If you are the Beast, then answer me this,” the Doctor said. “Which one, hmm? Cos the universe has been busy since you’ve been gone. There’s more religions than there are planets in the sky. The Archiphets, Orkology, Christianity, Pash Pash, New Judaism, San Klah, Church of the Tin Vagabond. Which devil are you?”

“All of them.”

“What, then you’re the truth behind the myth?”

The Beast’s voice dripped with scorn. “This one knows me as I know him—the killer of his own kind.”

A sick shudder ran through both Rose and the Doctor. She knew he felt exposed, but there was something worse she didn’t want to think about. If this… this thing had gotten into his head, then what chance did her feeble barriers have?

“How did you end up on this rock?” the Doctor asked, the mocking gone from his voice.

“The Disciples of the Light rose up against me and chained me in the pit for all eternity.”

Rose nibbled on her thumb nail, worrying a hangnail free and tearing it off. The sting was a welcome diversion from the perilous situation she was in.

“When was this?” the Doctor asked

“Before time,” the Beast answered.

Rose could almost see the deep furrows in the Doctor’s forehead.  “What does that mean?”

“Before time.”

The repeated line caught the attention of Jefferson and Danny, and they started whispering in the corner. Rose couldn’t hear all of what they said, but she could pick up on the panicked notes in Danny’s voice and guessed at the content—Danny insisting the Beast was Satan, and Jefferson saying the owner of the voice was just trying to play them, get them riled up.

Judging by the frustration in the Doctor’s voice, he was succeeding in that goal. “What does before time mean?”

“Before light and time and space and matter. Before the cataclysm. Before this universe was created.”

“That’s impossible,” the Doctor said. “No life could have existed back then.”

“Is that your religion?”

“It’s a belief.” The corner of Rose’s lips rose up in the barest hint of a smile. He called himself a Time Lord; time literally was his religion.

“You know nothing. All of you, so small. The captain, so scared of command. The soldier, haunted by the eyes of his wife.” Jefferson started, and Rose realised the Beast was pulling at the weak points of every single person on base.

“The scientist, still running from Daddy. The little boy who lied. The virgin.” Rose watched, one by one, as the crew members on the drilling platform started when the Beast mentioned them. She thought she was prepared for anything he might say; so much had happened to her, what would he mention?

“And the lost girl, so far away from home. The valiant child who will die in battle so very soon.”

Rose stared at the monitor in horror. She hadn’t expected _that._ “Doctor, what does that mean?”

“Rose, don’t listen.”

His words were reassuring, but she could feel his fear. He didn’t know what the Beast meant, and if he didn’t know, he couldn’t promise her it wouldn’t happen. Still, she couldn’t keep herself from asking again. “What does it mean?”

The Ood answered before the Doctor could. “You will die and I will live.”

The Ood disappeared from the monitor, replaced by a beast with red horns howling in a pit. Everyone stared at the image of the Beast until it disappeared. “What the hell was that?” Danny asked.

Toby clenched his teeth. “I had that thing inside my head.”

“Doctor, what did it mean?” Rose repeated.

Around her and over the comms, the entire crew were panicking. Danny kept asking what they were going to do, and Jefferson tried to get Zach to take the lead in the situation. Zach, who’d been a fine leader until then, barely said a word.

Rose tried again. “Doctor, how did it know all of that? What did it mean?”

“Everyone just stop,” the Doctor ordered, but everyone kept on talking until a blast of feedback went over the comms. “You want voices in the dark, then listen to mine. That thing is playing on very basic fears. Darkness, childhood nightmares, all that stuff.”

“But that’s how the devil works,” Danny pointed out.

“Or a good psychologist.”

“Yeah, but how did it know about my father?” Ida asked.

Rose knew the Doctor wouldn’t answer that question, because telling the crew the creature they were fighting against was telepathic would only fan the flames of their fear.

“Okay, but what makes his version of the truth any better than mine, hmm?” the Doctor cajoled. “Cos I’ll tell you what I can see. Humans. Brilliant humans. Humans who travel all the way across space, flying in a tiny little rocket right into the orbit of a black hole, just for the sake of discovery. That’s amazing!”

There was a beat of silence.

“Do you hear me?” the Doctor asked. “Amazing, all of you. The captain, his officer, his elders, his juniors, his friends. All with one advantage. The Beast is alone. We are not. If we can use that to fight against him—”

One strand of the cable holding the capsule snapped, then another, and then the rest of it at once. “Doctor, we lost the cable! Doctor, are you all right? Doctor!”

“Comms are down,” Zach said.

Rose ignored him. The Doctor was still down there. She could tell he was shaken, but all right. _Although come to think of it, would I be able to tell if he were injured?_ She shoved the thought aside and tried to get him on the comms again. “Doctor? Doctor, can you hear me?”

“I’ve still got life signs, but we’ve lost the capsule,” Zach said.

“Say something,” Rose pleaded. “Are you there?”

“There’s no way out. They’re stuck down there.”

Rose’s stomach turned at the finality in Zach’s voice. “But we’ve got to bring them back,” she said.

Jefferson nodded toward the shaft. “They’re ten miles down. We haven’t got another ten miles of cable.”

A loud bang on the door broke the conversation. “Captain? Situation report.”

“It’s the Ood. They’re cutting through the door bolts. They’re breaking in.”

“Yeah, it’s the same on door 25.”

Rose’s thumbnail was bit down to the quick, but a plan was forming in her mind as she listened to the crew members discuss the situation. “How long’s it going to take?”

“Well, it’s only a basic frame, it should take ten minutes.” They heard the clang of another bolt being cut. “Eight.”

“I’ve got a security frame,” Zach said. “It might last a bit longer, but that doesn’t help you.”

The platform was still in semi-darkness, and she had a feeling the entire station was the same. _Right. Step one, light. Step two, stop the Ood. Step three, save the Doctor. Step four… Find the TARDIS._ The ship hummed in the back of her mind, and she could feel how close they were—close, and yet with miles of planet crust between them.

Rose steeled herself. The people around her were frightened into passivity, but she wasn’t going to take death by Ood sitting down. It was up to her to save all of them, and the Doctor too if she could manage. “Right. So we need to stop them, or get out, or both.”

Danny flailed a bit and rolled his eyes at her. “I’ll take both, yeah? But how?”

Rose joined him by the capsule controls. “You heard the Doctor. Why do you think that thing cut him off?” She looked over at Jefferson. “Cos he was making sense. He was telling you to think your way out of this. Come on! For starters, we need some lights. There’s got to be some sort of power somewhere.”

“There’s nothing I can do. Some Captain, stuck in here, pressing buttons,” Zach said

“That’s what the Doctor meant. Press the right buttons.”

“They’ve gutted the generators.” He paused, and Rose could almost hear his brain working again. “But the rocket’s got an independent supply, if I could reroute that—Mr. Jefferson? Open the bypass conduits. Override the safety.”

Jefferson set his gun down and turned to the panel behind him. “Opening the bypass conduits, sir.”

“Channelling rocket feed in three, two, one. Power.”

Rose clapped even as she blinked against the sudden influx of light. “There we go,” she crowed, willingly suffering the pain as her eyes adjusted.

“Let there be light!” Jefferson said.

Rose was startled to see he was looking at her like she had some authority.

“What about that Strategy Nine thing?” The idea repelled Rose, but the Ood didn’t seem to be saveable.

“Not enough power. It needs a hundred percent.”

Rose rocked back on her heels, her mind racing. “All right, we need a way out. Zach, Mr. Jefferson, you start working on that. Toby, what about you?”

Toby stood up, his body rigid in anger. “I’m not a soldier. I can’t do anything.”

“No, you’re the archeologist,” she reminded him. “What do you know about the pit?”

“Well, nothing. We can’t even translate the language.”

“Right.”

She started to walk away, but Toby stopped her. “Hold on. Maybe.”

_Maybe was good. Maybe was very good._ “What is it?”

Toby shook his head and squinted. “Since that thing was inside my head, it’s like the letters make more sense.”

“Well, get to work. Anything you can translate, just anything.” She turned to their remaining team member. “As for you, Danny boy. You’re in charge of the Ood. Any way of stopping them?”

“Well, I don’t know.”

She tugged him over to the terminal. “Then find out. The sooner we get control of the base, the sooner we can get the Doctor out. Shift.” She kicked him lightly on the bum as she walked away. If she could keep everyone working and thinking like a team, they might still get out of here alive.

Jefferson looked over at her when she mentioned the Doctor, but Rose didn’t care what he thought of her priorities. She stared down into the pit, willing him to feel her determination. _I’m not leavin’ here without you._

It was easier to stay focused on bringing him back to the top when she knew he was working toward the same thing. Her and the Doctor had always worked well together, as long as they were both working for the same goal. The few times things had really fallen apart had been those moments when they were aiming for different things and worked against each other instead of with each other.

Jefferson continued to reroute power and adjust the oxygen filters while Rose watched Danny work. Another bang on the door reminded them that they were running out of time.

Danny practically vibrated with frustration, shaking his hands at his terminal like he wanted to strangle it. “There’s all sorts of viruses that could stop the Ood. Trouble is, we haven’t got them on board.”

Rose had had it with his self indulgent self-pity. “Well, that’s handy, listing all the things we haven’t got. We haven’t got a swimming pool either. Or a Tesco’s.”

Danny started to snipe back at her, then the computer dinged and the monitor flashed with the word AFFIRMATIVE. “Oh, my God. It says yes. I can do it. Hypothetically, if you flip the monitor, broadcast a flare, it can disrupt the telepathy. Brainstorm!”

Rose remembered the Doctor talking about brainstorm when they were in the parallel universe, but he’d never said what it was, exactly. “What happens to the Ood?”

“It’ll tank them spark out.”

_Finally, a working plan!_ “There we are, then. Do it!”

He swallowed and shook his head. “No, but I’d have to transmit from the central monitor. We need to go to Ood Habitation.”

“That’s what we’ll do, then.” Rose pivoted to face her strongest team member. “Mr. Jefferson, sir. Any way out?”

“Just about. There’s a network of maintenance tunnels running underneath the base. We should be able to gain access from here.”

The Doctor had taken them back to 1977 to see _Star Wars_ not long after Christmas. The idea of using the shafts to get through the base made her grin. “Ventilation shafts.”

Mr. Jefferson shook his head. “Yeah, I appreciate the reference, but there’s no ventilation. No air, in fact, at all. They were designed for machines, not life forms.”

Zach spoke up. “But I can manipulate the oxygen field from here. Create discrete pockets of atmosphere. If I control it manually, I can follow you through the network.”

It was a sketchy plan at best, but it was also their only plan. “Right, so we go down, and you make the air follow us by hand.”

“You wanted me pressing buttons.”

Rose had to smile. Finally, they were starting to think their way out of this—even if they came up with a plan almost as impossible as the planet itself. “Yeah, I asked for it. Okay, we need to get to Ood Habitation. Work out a route.”

Danny kept tapping away at his terminal while Zach and Mr. Jefferson figured out how to get them through the maintenance shafts to Ood Habitation. Rose paced the metal grating and watched everyone do their jobs, feeling a little bit like she didn’t have much of a point now that they were all motivated.

_But that’s leadership, yeah?_ she reminded herself. _Delegate and then expect people to do their jobs._

“Right, we’ll start in the maintenance shaft right at your feet, Jefferson,” Zach said after a few minutes. “I’ll direct you once you’re under.”

Another bolt on the door gave way. “Toby!” Rose called out. “Come help Mr. Jefferson pull up the deck plating.”

The archeologist abandoned his books and lent the security officer a hand, for once doing as he was told without complaining. Danny was still working on the computer, but they could all hear the clangs as the Ood continued to cut through the bolts around the door frame.

“Danny!” Rose called out.

“Hold on! Just conforming.”

Another bolt was cut loose. “Dan, we’ve got to go now,” Mr. Jefferson shouted. “Come on!”

“Yeah.” He ran to the tunnel, waving the chip in front of Rose’s face. “Put that in the monitor and it’s a bad time to be an Ood.”

Rose put one arm on his shoulder and the other on Toby’s. “We’re coming back. Have you got that? We’re coming back to this room and we’re getting the Doctor out.”

Jefferson didn’t seem to care about her vow. The door clanged again, and he directed them into the tunnel. “Okay. Danny, you go first, then you, Miss Tyler, then Toby. I’ll go last in the defensive position. Now, come on, quick as you can!”

Rose dropped into the tunnel after Danny, and the smell almost overpowered her: metal dust and stale air and foul fumes from the machinery that had worked in the tunnel. “God, it stinks. You all right?”

Danny nodded sarcastically. “Yeah, I’m laughing. Which way do we go?” he asked Zach.

“Just go straight ahead. Keep going till I say so.”

The started crawling through the maintenance shaft, moving as fast as they could. Danny’s bum filled Rose’s vision, and she couldn’t help a little jab at him. “Not your best angle, Danny.”

“Oi, stop it.”

“I don’t know, it could be worse,” Toby said from behind her.

“Oi!” Rose retorted, not caring for it when the shoe was on the other foot.

“Straight on until you find junction 7.1. Keep breathing. I’m feeding you air. I’ve got you,” Zach promised.

The metal shavings that coated the floor cut into Rose’s palms as they crawled through the tunnels, and she spared a moment to be grateful she was wearing thick jeans. Her palms were likely to be a bloody mess when they got out of here anyway, no need to add another injury to the list.

Toby, Danny, and Jefferson were all breathing heavily by the time they reached 7.1, but Rose wasn’t even winded. Danny stared at her in confusion as he flipped the button on his comms. “We’re at 7.1, sir.”

“Okay, I’ve got you. I’m just aerating the next section.”

“Getting kind of cramped, sir. Can’t you hurry up?” Rose rolled her eyes at Danny’s dramatics.

“I’m working on half power, here.”

“Stop complaining,” Jefferson said from the rear of the party.

Rose rested her head against the side of the tunnel and passed the message on to Danny. “Mr. Jefferson says stop complaining.”

“I heard.”

“He heard.” She knew it was childish, but she had to do something to lighten the situation or she’d go mad. She examined her palms; the metal filings seemed to be too fine to cut, even if they did dig as she crawled over them.

Toby spoke up next. “But the air’s getting a bit thin.”

“He’s complaining now,” Rose told Jefferson.

“I heard.”

Rose caught a whiff of unpleasant body odour, and looked over to see Danny dripping in sweat. “Danny, is that you?”

“I’m not exactly happy,” he said defensively.

Zach’s calm voice came over the comms. “I’m just moving the air. I’ve got to oxygenate the next section. Now, keep calm or it’s going to feel worse.”

Behind them, they heard a grating of metal on metal. Rose fleetingly wished people would stop saying things like, “It could only get worse,” because it always did.

Rose, Danny, and Toby all talked over the top of each other, each asking Jefferson what exactly had made that noise. The security officer held up a hand and got on comms. “Captain, what was that?”

“The junction in Habitation Five’s been opened. It must be the Ood. They’re in the tunnels!”

Danny beat at the door. “Well, open the gate.”

“I’ve got to get the air in!”

“Just open it, sir!” He used his shoulder to wipe the sweat off his face.

The atmosphere at the junction was getting out of hand, and Rose took control again. “Where are they? Are they close?”

“I don’t know. I can’t tell. I can’t see them. The computer doesn’t register Ood as proper life forms.”

She rolled her eyes. She’d half a mind to become one of those Friends of the Ood once they got out of here—if they got out of here. “Whose idea was that?”

“Open the gate!” Danny demanded, and as if his words were magic, the gate finally opened.

They all piled through. “Danny, turn left,” Zach directed. “Immediate left.” Danny led them down the next tunnel, all of them going as fast as they could.

They could hear the Ood behind them now, and Jefferson asked the question they were all wondering. “The Ood, sir. Can’t you trap them? Cut off the air?”

“Not without cutting off yours.” Zach continued to guide them through the tunnels, all of them knowing they’d have to move fast to beat the Ood. “Danny, turn right. Go right! Go fast, Dan. They’re going to catch up.”

Jefferson stopped in middle of the tunnel and braced both his legs against the sides. “I’ll maintain defensive position.”

Rose’s vision swam with the now familiar sensation of timelines shifting. This was one of those decisions that caused a split—two different ends to the story… to Jefferson. “You can’t stop,” she protested, knowing what would happen if he did.

He shook his head slightly, and she saw in his eyes that he knew exactly what he was doing. “Miss Tyler, that’s my job. You’ve got your task, now see to it.”

Toby pushed her forward. “You heard what he said, now shift.” 

They heard weapons fire behind them as they reached the next junction. “8.2,” Danny said. “Open 8.2. Zach! Open 8.2!”

“I’ve got to aerate it.”

“Open it now!”

Zach’s normally calm voice had an impatient edge. “I’m trying.”

Panicked, Danny started thumping the gate. “Danny, stop it.” Rose pulled on his arm, but he resisted her. “That’s not helping.”

“Zach, get it open,” Toby yelled.

“Jefferson, I’ve got to open 8.2 by closing 8.1. You’ve got to get past the junction. Now move. That’s an order, now move!”

From the sound of gunfire, Rose didn’t think Jefferson was obeying the order fast enough for Zach’s taste, and the captain’s next words confirmed it.

“I’m going to lose oxygen, Jefferson, I can’t stop for your dramatics!”

Door 8.2 opened for them, and Rose followed Danny through with a look back to where Jefferson was keeping the Ood at bay.

“Danny, turn left and head for 9.2. That’s the last one. Jefferson you’ve got to move faster. John, move!”

Rose watched the door slide shut. Once before she’d been in a situation where a door had shut too early. That time, she’d been on the wrong side, but the Doctor had been able to rescue her after all. This time, that wouldn’t be an option. “Mr. Jefferson!”

“Keep going,” Toby growled.

“Regret to inform, sir,” Jefferson said, sounding winded, “I was a bit slow. Not so fast, these days.”

The regretful resolve in Zach’s voice was painful to hear. “I can’t open 8.1, John. Not without losing air for the others.”

“And quite right too, sir. I think I bought them a little time.”

“There’s nothing I can do, John. I’m sorry.”

“You’ve done enough, sir. Made a very good captain under the circumstances. May I ask, if you can’t add oxygen to this section, can you speed up the process of its removal?”

“I don’t understand. What do you mean?”

Rose held back tears as the security officer bravely made his last request. “Well, if I might chose the manner of my departure, sir, lack of air seems more natural than, well, let’s say death by Ood. I’d appreciate it, sir!”

“God speed, Mr. Jefferson.”

“Thank you, sir.

“Report. Officer John Maynard Jefferson PKD deceased with honours. 43 K 2.1.”

Rose bit her lip. It had been her idea to go through the tunnels; maybe if she’d worked a little harder, been a little more clever, they could have found a different way and Mr. Jefferson wouldn’t have died.

“Zach,” Danny said, his voice hoarse, “we’re at the final junction, 9.2. And ah, if my respects could be on record. He saved our lives.”

“Noted,” Zach said sombrely. “Opening 9.2.”

The door slid open, but there were more Ood waiting for them on the other side. “Lower 9.2!” Rose shouted. “Hurry, Zach!”

They backed up along the tunnel, but Toby said, “We can’t go back. The junction’s sealed off. We’re stuck.”

Rose glanced wildly around the tunnel, and then she looked up and realised they were back under the deck. “Come on, up!” she shouted as she slammed on the grating, heedless of the sting in her palms.

It finally moved, and she and Danny lifted themselves up into a corridor near Door 32. “Come on! Toby, come on!”

There was an unbearable pause while Toby seemed to move in slow motion. “Toby, get out of there!” Rose yelled.

“Help me! Oh, my God. Help me!” he yelled, and Danny pulled him up, just as Door 32 opened to let Ood into the corridor.

“It’s this way,” Danny said, running in the opposite direction.

“Hurry it up!” Zach yelled, and Rose realised the Ood must be nearly through his security door.

Door 34 slid open and they were finally in Ood Habitation. Danny raced to the terminal, fumbling with the chip in his haste. Rose stood by him, looking down at the Ood below.  “Get it in!” Rose ordered when they started marching toward them.

“Danny, get the card in,” Toby said.

He looked at them both, and Rose could see the pressure and terror were really getting to him. They didn’t have time to calm him down though—he needed to work. “Transmit!” she shouted, and he nodded and turned back to the terminal.

“I’m trying, I’m trying! I’m getting at it.”

The Ood were on the stairs now, and Rose didn’t have to ask to know that Zach was in a similar situation. “Danny get that thing transmitting!”

She heard him smack a button on his console, and then all the Ood grabbed their heads and fell to their knees in agony. Rose felt a loud whoosh in her mind, then the buzz that had been there since they’d landed on Krop Tor disappeared.

“You did it! We did it!” Rose hugged Danny first and then Toby.

Danny pumped the air in victory. “Yes!”

“Zach, we did it,” Rose told the captain. "The Ood are down. Now we’ve got to get the Doctor.”


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to all the lovely readers who've stuck with me this long. This chapter, and the next few, are your reward.

Chapter 22

The crew’s panic had the Doctor on edge. He had to get them calmed down before they did something stupid. He forgot for a moment that he was wearing an environment suit and reached up to run his hand through his hair, only to hit the helmet instead.

He took a deep breath and dove back into his speech. “Okay, but what makes his version of the truth any better than mine, hmm? Cos I’ll tell you what I can see. Humans. Brilliant humans. Humans who travel all the way across space, flying in a tiny little rocket right into the orbit of a black hole, just for the sake of discovery. That’s amazing!”

Rose’s panic at least faded a bit, and he pressed on, hoping the others would come around. “Do you hear me? Amazing, all of you. The captain, his officer, his elders, his juniors, his friends. All with one advantage. The Beast is alone. We are not. If we can use that to fight against him—”

A crack overhead interrupted the Doctor just as he was getting to his main point—if they could only work together, they could still get out alive. “The cable’s snapped!” Ida shouted.

“Get out!” They threw themselves back out into the cavern just before miles of steel cable landed right where they’d been standing.

The Doctor stood up slowly and turned around. The capsule had been reduced to a twisted hulk of metal, and the cable was coiled at their feet.

_Well, we obviously aren’t getting back to the surface that way_.

The only comfort was that several of the timelines where he lost Rose had disappeared when the cable snapped. The Beast—whoever he was—might think he’d trapped them here, but somehow what he’d done had made it more possible for them to actually make it out of this adventure together.

“How much air have we got?” he asked Ida.

“Sixty minutes.” She looked at the monitor again and winced. “Fifty five.”

Fifty five minutes to find a way back up to Rose. He’d taken her from her home and stranded her on this rock; he would not abandon her.

His gloved hands clenched and relaxed. “That’s our timeframe then. What are our assets?”

“Well, we’ve got all this cable,” she said, clambering to the top of the rubble. “We might as well use it. The drum’s disconnected. We could adapt it, feed it through.”

The Doctor wasn’t following; this didn’t sound like a plan to get back to the surface. “And then what?”

“Abseil into the pit.”

“Abseil. Right.” _So not a plan to get to the top then._

“We’re running out of air with no way back. It’s the only thing we can do. Even if it’s the last thing we ever achieve.”

Her resignation was palpable, but the Doctor refused to give into it. “I’ll get back. Rose is up there.”

She stared at him, no hint of surprise on her face. “Well, maybe the key to that is finding out what’s in the pit.”

Finally her plan was starting to make sense. They clearly weren’t going to get back to the top without some kind of help, and the pit was the only place they had left to explore.

“Well, it’s half of a good plan,” he acknowledged, his decision already made. Rose’s steady determination to find a way to bring him back fuelled his own deep need to return to her.

Ida frowned slightly. “What’s the other half?”

“I go down, not you.”

“Doctor, you’re not even officially a member of this team! I’m the science officer, if anyone should be making the discoveries—”

“You’re human, Ida.”

“You keep saying that, so I assume you’re not.”

For once, the Doctor didn’t brag about his superior physiology. It was simply a fact, one that might actually save their lives this time. “No, I’m not. And my body is much better able to cope with poor atmospheric pressure or any other situation we might find at the bottom of the pit.”

A good officer recognises it when a better alternative is presented to her, and Ida Scott was a very good officer. She nodded tersely, and the Doctor admired her pragmatism.

“Right then, let’s get this cable untangled.”

They were both aware that speech consumes more oxygen, so they worked in silence to pull the cable out of the rubble and wrap one end around the drum. It took them twenty minutes, working together, and when they were done, the Doctor tied one end around his waist. The other was secured to the drum of the broken pulley.

“That should hold it,” Ida said. “How’s it going?”

The Doctor tugged on the cable, making sure it was secure on his waist. “All right. Should work. Doesn’t feel like such a good idea now.” He positioned himself on the edge of the pit and looked down into the abyss, and a familiar curiosity tugged at him. “Hmm, there it is again. That itch. Go down, go down, go down, go down, go down.”

Ida manned the cable on the drum. “The urge to jump. Do you know where it comes from, that sensation? Genetic heritage. Ever since we were primates in the trees. It’s our body’s way of testing us. Calculating whether or not we can reach the next branch.”

He didn’t remind her that he wasn’t human. “No, that’s not it. That’s too kind. It’s not the urge to jump. It’s deeper than that. It’s the urge to fall!”

He leapt off the edge and sailed a good forty feet down before the brakes caught the cable. “Doctor! Are you okay?”

“Not bad, thanks.” He looked around, the lamp on his helmet revealing the same rough, rocky finish as they’d seen above. “The wall of the pit seems to be the same as the cavern, just not much of it. There’s a crust about twenty feet down and then nothing. Just the pit. Okay, then. Lower me down.”

“Well, here we go then.”

The winch started again, lowering him further into the darkness. The Doctor stared down into the black pit, then back up to where he could just make out Ida’s form. Leaping before he looked was very him, and this was the best chance—the only chance—to find a way back to the top. He’d stated firmly that he would get back to Rose, but privately, he had to admit the odds were not good.

It was a strange and new feeling for the him, going forward for the sole purpose of finding a way to go back. He was curious about the Beast and interested in seeing what kind of things the culture had left behind, but what he really wanted was to find the TARDIS, get Rose, and leave.

To take his mind off it, he started rambling again. “You get representations of the Horned Beast right across the universe, in the myths and legends of a million worlds. Earth, Draconia, Velconsadine, Daemos. The carving on the wall. It’s the same image, over and over again.”

He remembered another myth that had been spread throughout all cultures. _Zagreus sits inside your head…_

The Doctor shook his head hard. That was not the thought he wanted in his head as he approached a creature claiming to be The Beast.

“Maybe that idea came from somewhere, bleeding through. The thought at the back of every sentient mind.”

“Emanating from here?” Ida asked.

“Could be.”

“But if this is the original, does that make it real? Does that make it the actual devil, though?”

The fear was obvious in Ida’s voice, and the Doctor forced lightness into his tone to combat it. “Well, if that’s what you want to believe. Maybe that’s what the devil is, in the end. An idea.”

There was a screech, and he jerked to a halt. “That’s it,” Ida told him. “That’s all we’ve got.”

The Doctor checked the monitors on his wrist.

“You getting any sort of readout?” she asked.

“Nothing. Could be miles to go, yet. Or could be thirty feet. No way of telling.” The urge to fall was there again, along with the constant need to find a way back to Rose. “I could survive thirty feet.”

“Oh no you don’t. I’m pulling you back up.” The winch started to pull him back to the surface, and he pressed the brake button on his suit.

“What’re you doing?” Ida demanded.

“You bring me back, then we’re just going to sit there and run out of air,” he told her quietly. “I’ve got to go down.”

“But you can’t. Doctor, you can’t.”

“Call it an act of faith.” If he didn’t find a way up, Rose would find a way down. The Beast had claimed Time was his religion, but he believed in her.

“But I don’t want to die on my own,” Ida said as he unhooked the carabiner.

“I know.”

“I didn’t ask,” he said as he continued to uncouple himself from the cable. “Have you got any sort of faith?”

“Not really. I was brought up Neo Classic Congregational, because of my mum. She was. My old mum. But no, I never believed.”

“Neo Classics, have they got a devil?” It was an odd sort of conversation to have, but what else do you talk about when you’re on the way to meet the Beast?

“No, not as such. Just, er, the things that men do.”

“Same thing in the end.”

“What about you?”

The Doctor paused for a long moment. The answer was on the tip of his tongue, but it felt too personal to share. Rose’s belief in him shone like a beacon, one of the constants in his life. He wouldn’t let her down.

“I believe,” he said, rambling as he came up with an answer that was part of the truth but not the whole. “I believe I haven’t seen everything. It’s funny, isn’t it? The things you make up, the rules. If that thing had said it came from beyond the universe, I’d believe it, but before the universe? Impossible. Doesn’t fit my rule. Still, that’s why I keep travelling. To be proved wrong. Thank you, Ida.”

“Don’t go!”

There wasn’t anything he could say to that. He was going; they both knew he was. “If they get back in touch, if you talk to Rose, just tell her… Tell her…”

The Doctor shook his head. He could tell her himself. For the first time, he deliberately opened himself up to their connection, instead of holding back as much as he could. He felt the comforting warmth of her love in return, along with a good portion of concern. She knew him too well.

“Oh, she knows,” he said and released the last carabiner.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Rose gnawed another fingernail down while she waited for Zach to patch the comms through the central desk. Now that the Ood situation was taken care of, they could finally work on finding a way to bring the Doctor and Ida back up to the surface.

The activity of the last twenty minutes had pushed her awareness of the Doctor to the back to the back of her mind, but a few minutes ago, just as they’d reached the drilling station, she’d felt him purposely reach for it. Instead of feeling happy he deliberately, willingly let her know he loved her, the fact that he’d intentionally used the connection he’d been trying to avoid sent a chill up her spine.

Finally, Zach gave her a nod and she clicked the mic on. “Doctor, are you there? Doctor, Ida, can you hear me?” She released the button for a minute so they could reply, then tried again. “Are you there, Doctor?”

“He’s gone,” Ida said.

Rose shook her head in disbelief. She reached out, just to make sure, and he was there—even though he did feel a little… a little quiet, like when he was sleeping. “What do you mean, he’s gone?”

“He fell into the pit. And I don’t know how deep it is—miles and miles and miles.”

That wasn’t possible. She hadn’t felt anything like fear or surprise, like she would expect if he’d been injured. “But what do you mean, he fell?”

“I couldn’t stop him. He said your name.”

Rose closed her eyes. He hadn’t fallen; he’d jumped. And that was when he’d reached out to tell her he loved her. He’d let go of the cable, not knowing if he’d be alive when he hit the bottom, and he’d hadn’t wanted to leave without telling her, just once.

Zach gently took the mic from her numb hands. “I’m sorry,” he told her.

Rose was aware that Zach was talking to Ida, explaining the situation to her, but she couldn’t react to anything going on around her. The crew were giving up. They were going to leave, of course they were. It was the only thing they could do. It had been a mad idea to stay on a planet orbiting a black hole, and they’d paid a steep price for it.

But just because they were leaving didn’t mean she had to. The Doctor was still here, the Doctor and the TARDIS. If he was still alive, and he was, then he could find their home and come for her. She’d done her part, keeping as many people safe as she could and making it safe for him to come back.

Ida’s voice broke through her haze. “It’s all right. Just go. Good luck.”

Zach shut the comm off. “And you. Danny, Toby, close down the feed links. Get the retrotropes online, then get to the rocket and strap yourselves in. We’re leaving.”

The announcement cleared Rose’s head completely. “I’m not going.”

He stopped and turned to her, his jaw hanging open a little. “Rose, there’s space for you.”

“No, I’m going to wait for the Doctor.” She was proud that there wasn’t even a hitch in her voice. They’d find each other, so there wasn’t any reason to get emotional. “Just like he waited for me.”

“I’m sorry, but he’s dead.”

“You don’t know him.” A year ago, the words would have been distraught, but today she spoke with a certainty she knew surprised Zach. “Cos he’s not. I’m telling you, he’s not,” she insisted.

The captain opened his mouth to argue, but Rose shook her head quickly. She didn’t care if he thought she was a woman hysterical in grief. She wouldn’t leave. “No, I’m going to stay.”

Zach nodded his head slowly. “Then I apologise for this. Danny, Toby? Make her secure.”

Rose understood a split second too late. The two men grabbed her by the arms and held her still. “No, no. No! No! No! Let me go! Get off me! I’m not leaving!”

She was frantic enough that she might have won the fight, but then she felt a faint pinch in her arm and realised Zach had drugged her. “No,” she murmured one more time, but it was too late.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The Doctor groaned as he regained consciousness. His body was bruised by the fall, but he didn’t seem to have broken any bones. He opened his eyes and realised the faceplate in his helmet was broken, and yet…

“I’m breathing. Air cushion to support the fall. You can breath down here, Ida. Can you hear me, Ida?”

There was no response. _Guess the broken helmet severed the comm link, or at least my audio._

The ground shook with the power of rocket engines igniting. “A rocket.” He looked up toward the surface, oh, so many miles away, and hoped Rose was on board. Across their connection, he felt a sudden wave of resentment and then resignation which told him she probably was, and unwillingly. 

He refused to let the loss overwhelm him. He and Rose had beaten the odds so many times before; this wouldn’t be the time they lost. The TARDIS was close; he’d find her, and with her help, he’d save Rose.

He shone his torch on the cave walls, revealing primitive paintings. “The history of some big battle. Man against Beast. I don’t know if you’re getting this, Ida. Hope so. Anyway, they defeated the Beast and imprisoned it.”

A reflection caught his eye, and he turned to see two bronze urns sitting on pedestals in front of an enormous pit. He glanced back at the painting, and yes, they seemed to be the same urns in the picture of the Beast’s prison.

“Well maybe that’s the key.” He approached the urn closest to him and grabbed the handle. It glowed, and then the other did as well. “Or the gate, or the bars.”

From the pit, he heard a groan, and then the rattle of chains. A shadow moved, and then took shape and colour. An enormous, red, horned beast was chained to the wall.

The Doctor leaned back in shock. For all his talk about Balrogs earlier, he’d not expected this. “I accept that you exist. I don’t have to accept what you are, but your physical existence—I’ll give you that.”

The impossible variables of the situation suddenly became clear to him. “I don’t understand. I was expected down here. I was given a safe landing and air. You need me for something. What for?”

The Beast reared at him, but was pulled back by his chains. From the centre of the pit, he glared balefully at the Doctor.

The lack of answers annoyed the Doctor. “Have I got to, I don’t know, beg an audience? Or is there a ritual? Some sort of incantation or summons or spell? All these things I don’t believe in, are they real?” Presented with the physical reality of the Beast he hadn’t thought existed, the Doctor briefly wondered about the rest of his beliefs. “Speak to me! Tell me!”

The Beast only growled in response. “You won’t talk. Or you can’t talk.” His mind rapidly went through everything that had happened since their arrival on Krop Tor. “Oh, hold on, wait a minute, just let me. Oh! No. Yes! No. Think it through.”

He paced in front of the pit and held his hand up, as if he were asking a judge for more time to craft his closing argument. “You spoke before. I heard your voice. An intelligent voice. No, more than that. Brilliant. But, looking at you now, all I can see is Beast. The animal. Just the body. You’re just the body, the physical form. What’s happened to your mind, hmm? Where’s it gone? Where’s that intelligence?”

_Where… where could it be?_ He glanced around, then up. Up to the surface, where the rocket was flying away from the planet.

“Oh, no.” The sound he heard was the penny dropping. The Beast had spoken before. It had spoken through Toby. Toby, who was still alive and on the rocket with Rose. But his escape couldn’t be that easy, or he’d have done it years ago.

He looked back at the paintings on the wall, trying to confirm his hypothesis. “You were imprisoned, long time ago. Before the universe, after, sideways, in between, doesn’t matter. The prison is perfect. It’s absolute, it’s eternal.”

_Except what’s to actually keep him here in the pit? If he’s as strong and powerful as he seems to be, why hasn’t he escaped before?_

And then he saw the balance of the design. “Oh, yes! Open the prison, the gravity field collapses. This planet falls into the black hole! You escape, you die. Brilliant!”

The beast growled again, reminding the Doctor of the real issue of the moment. “But that’s just the body. The body is trapped, that’s all. The devil is an idea. In all those civilisations, just an idea. But an idea is hard to kill. An idea could escape. The mind. The mind of the great Beast. The mind can escape!”

On the edge of his field of vision, he saw the urns, and he realised exactly what they were. “Oh, but that’s it! You didn’t give me air, your jailers did. They set this up all those years ago! They need me alive, because if you’re escaping, then I’ve got to stop you.”

The Beast lunged forward, but like before, he hit the end of his tether. The Doctor picked up a rock and grinned at him. “If I destroy your prison, your body is destroyed. Your mind with it.”

The Doctor raised the rock over his head, but before he could smash it down onto the urn, he saw the fatal flaw in his plan. _The gravity field. The same gravity field they flew down to arrive here, the one the rocket is using right now to escape. The rocket that has Rose on it._

He dropped the rock and leaned against one of the pedestals, staring at the urn. “But then you’re clever enough to use this whole system against me. If I destroy this planet, I destroy the gravity field.”

The Beast’s silence was smug. “The rocket. The rocket loses protection and falls into the black hole. I have to sacrifice Rose.” The thought cut so badly, he barely heard the Beast’s roar of triumph. “So, that’s the trap. Or the test, or the final judgment, I don’t know. But if I kill you, I kill her.”

The Beast actually cackled in victory, fulfilling every cliche the Doctor had ever heard of. He tried to get a sense of what Rose was doing, if she was all right, but with the mild empathic connection, he just couldn’t tell. Wherever she was, all he knew was that she wasn’t happy to be there.

The Doctor closed his eyes for a moment, forcing himself to push past emotion to a more solid belief. This whole adventure had been one step of faith after another, all leading to this final one. “Except that implies in this big grand scheme of gods and devils that she’s just a victim.”

He let out a breath so hard it was almost a snort. They always underestimated Rose Tyler. “But I’ve seen a lot of this universe. I’ve seen fake gods and bad gods and demigods and would-be gods, and out of all that, out of that whole pantheon, if I believe in one thing, just one thing, I believe in her.”

He grabbed the rock again and smashed first one urn, then the other. The planet shook and the Beast roared in denial, but the Doctor was certain this was right. It was the only way to get them both home, and to stop the Beast. Now he had to trust Rose to keep herself and everyone else safe until the TARDIS could get them away from the black hole.

“This is your freedom,” he said and tossed the rock on the ground. The Beast’s anger was fearsome, or would have been if the Doctor couldn’t tell he was chained to the wall just as securely as before. “Free to die. You’re going into that black hole and I’m going to find the TARDIS and rescue everyone else.”

The Doctor wheeled around and ran from the pit. The TARDIS’ hum was much louder down here than it had been even in the cavern above, so he knew she had to be close. He followed his instinct and a moment later, nearly ran smack into her.

He laughed in delight as he unlocked the door. The TARDIS hummed in greeting when he stepped inside. “Come on, old girl, let’s get out of here,” he said, darting around the controls. He felt his ship’s keen desire to rescue Rose, but before he put them in flight, he hesitated.

“We’ve got time to make a few stops,” he told her. “Rose would want us to save as many people as possible.”

The Doctor watched in satisfaction as the time rotor moved up and down. When he opened the doors, Ida’s eyes fluttered open. He picked her up and carried her inside, pulling her helmet off so she could breathe in the oxygen.

The last stop was a risk, but just as he was considering leaving the Ood behind, he felt the mind of the Beast—that unpleasant telepathic presence—disappear. Whatever had happened, he wasn’t around anymore, which meant the Ood should be safe.

And sure enough, when he landed in Ood Habitation and opened the door, there was no sign any of them were still possessed. They’d all returned to the docile creatures they’d been before the Beast had used them as his voice.

There were only fifteen Ood in Ood Habitation, but it was more than he would have been able to save if he hadn’t moved so quickly to get away from the Beast. Judging from the way the planet was shaking, he didn’t have any time left to spare if he wanted to rescue the rocket.

The gravity funnel had collapsed, so the rocket would be pulled into the black hole. For most people, that would be the end of it. Finito. Curtains. But he was a Time Lord and this was a TARDIS, and a pair like that could take on a black hole and be home in time for tea.

He spotted the rocket easily on his scanners. Using the Eye of Harmony, he created a gravitational field strong enough to counter the pull of the black hole. Then he focused the entire field on the ship, which hovered just above the event horizon, and flew the TARDIS in the opposite direction. Voila! Tractor beam.

Once he had the ship secure in the TARDIS’s grasp and far enough away from the black hole to ease his mind, he opened a comm link to the ship. “Sorry about the hijack, Captain. This is the good ship TARDIS. Now, first thing’s first. Have you got a Rose Tyler on board?”

He didn’t realise he’d been holding his breath until he heard her voice. “I’m here! It’s me! Oh, my God. Where are you?”

“I’m just towing you home. Gravity schmavity. My people practically invented black holes.” He leaned back in the jump seat, a half smile on his face. “Well, in fact, they did. In a couple of minutes, we’ll be nice and safe. Oh, and Captain? Can we do a swap? Say, if you give me Rose Tyler, I’ll give you Ida Scott? How about that?”

“She’s alive!” Zach shouted.

“Yeah! Bit of oxygen starvation, but she should be all right. I even managed to save a few of the Ood, the ones who were in Ood Habitation. Don’t worry about them being contaminated. Their eyes have gone back to normal.” The TARDIS beeped at him, and he glanced down at the display. “Ah! Entering clear space. End of the line. Mission closed.”

“Just one thing, Doctor,” Zach said. “How exactly do you propose we do this swap? I can’t land the ship until we’re at a base where we can get transport home—we don’t have boosters for another launch.”

The Doctor rocked back on his heels, finally feeling safe enough to be a little smug. “Oh, that won’t be a problem, will it Rose?”

She laughed in giddy relief. “Nope. Plenty of room in the cargo hold behind us.”

The Doctor could never be accused of perfect driving, but when it came to saving Rose, the TARDIS had a higher than average accuracy rate. Pilot and ship worked in concert to land precisely in the middle of the cargo hold.

“There you go, Ida,” he said. “Back where you belong.” The Ood assisted Ida to her feet and helped her out of the TARDIS.

The door had barely closed behind the last Ood when it opened again, and Rose stepped inside in one quick movement. They stared at each other for a long moment, almost unable to believe they’d made it, that they were here again together.

Then he was moving and she was coming toward him, and he picked her up off the ground in a hug that went far beyond the boundaries of friendly or celebratory. Holding her close, feeling her breathing, smelling the faint Rose scent he loved, he finally relaxed for the first time since they’d lost the TARDIS.

But then a hug wasn’t enough. He lowered her to her feet, settling one hand in the small of her back and the other at the nape of her neck. She met his gaze and bit her lip, and his last bit of restraint fled. With a sigh of defeat and victory, his lips met hers in their first kiss not clouded by possession or impending death.

He tried to pull her closer, but something constrained his arms. He tugged against the feeling, and then realised he was still wearing the space suit. “Oh, right. Help me get out of this?” he asked, setting her down.

Mischief twinkled in her eye, but she helped him out of the suit without comment. Despite being compressed for several hours, his brown suit didn’t have a single wrinkle.

Rose chuckled. “All that alien technology, and someone uses it to make wrinkle free cloth.”

“Well what’s the point of having hydrospanners if you still have to iron your clothes?” He grabbed her hand, unwilling to let her go for long. “One last call to our friends, yeah?”

She nodded and he opened the comm link again. “Zach, we’ll be off now. Have a good trip home.”

He considered for a moment, then added, “And the next time you get curious about something—oh, what’s the point. You’ll just go blundering in. The human race,” he said, making a face at Rose.

“But Doctor, what did you find down there?” Ida asked. “That creature, what was it?”

It only took a split second to decide against telling them what he’d seen. The Beast was gone—it wouldn’t do them any good to know he’d been real.

“I don’t know. Never did decipher that writing. But that’s good, day I know everything? Might as well stop.”

“What do you think it was, really?”

The serious tone in Rose’s voice unnerved him. Despite his words, he hadn’t forgotten all the things the Beast had said. “I think… we beat it. That’s good enough for me.”

But she wouldn’t let it go, or maybe she couldn’t. “It said I was going to die in battle.”

_Die in battle…_ The words planted the seed of an idea in his mind, but now wasn’t the time to think about it, not when she was looking at him so anxiously. “Then it lied,” he promised her, and she smiled and rested her head on his shoulder.

There was an awkward silence on the other end of the comm, and he cleared his throat. “Right, onwards, upwards. Ida? See you again, maybe.”

“I hope so.”

Rose bounced on her feet a little. “And thanks, boys!”

The Doctor moved to close the connection, but Ida’s voice stopped him. “Hang on though, Doctor. You never really said. You two, who are you?”

The Doctor and Rose looked at each other, smiling. “Oh, the stuff of legend,” he told Ida.

The Doctor cut the transmission, then turned around to lean against the console. “The Beast was trying to escape through Toby, wasn’t he?”

Rose nodded. “Yeah, he… I look at it now, and it was so obvious. There was this moment when we were getting away from the Ood, right, and he was down there with them. He must have been telling them to stay quiet, to not ruin our plan.”

“Because the only way for him to get off the planet was for the rocket to make it.”

“Right.”

“What happened?”

The Doctor knew what had happened, or he was pretty sure of it anyway. He’d felt her guilt at the same moment the mind of the Beast had disappeared. But Rose needed to say it now, needed to get it out in the open before it festered inside her.

“I… He’d been really…” She took a deep breath and let it out slowly through her nose. “I looked over at him, and he was suddenly covered those letters again. And then he breathed fire. Like an actual dragon, Doctor!”

“Go on,” he prompted gently.

“An’ we were all gonna die anyway, but I knew that I’d rather die in the black hole than by whatever he might do to us. And what if somehow you managed to get free and come get us? So…”

She toyed with the cuffs of her jacket, and the Doctor took her hands in his. “Tell me, Rose.”

“I shot the window. Opened us up to the vacuum of space, and then I hit the release on Toby’s safety belt. He went flying out of the rocket toward the black hole.”

The Doctor pulled gently until her head was resting against his chest. “I’m proud of you, Rose. You did what you had to do to keep everyone safe.”

“But what if we could have saved him?”

The Doctor shook his head. “Toby was beyond saving. The Ood were only possessed by the Beast; once he was gone, they went back to normal. Toby… Toby was taken over by him. There wasn’t really anything of him left.”

“Are you sure?”

It was tempting to say yes, but he wouldn’t lie. “You can never be positive, Rose, you know that. But I think you did the right thing, for everyone.”

She sniffed. “I’ll ah… I think I’m gonna go to bed. S’been a long day.”

He opened his mouth to argue, to say he’d wanted to talk to her, but he could see and feel how exhausted she was. “Right. I’ll just… get some work on the TARDIS done.”

Rose didn’t move, playing with one of the dials on the console instead. For once, even though her emotions were an open book to him, he couldn’t understand what they meant.

“The thing is,” she said finally, still not looking at him, “I sorta… well, I don’t think I could sleep if I went to bed alone. I couldn’t shut my mind off, so much happened and you were gone—Ida said—and they made me leave you behind.”

He pressed a finger to her lips, then when she stopped rambling, he gave in to months of temptation and kissed her. “Go get ready,” he told her quietly. “I’ll be there in a moment.”

Gratitude and relief rushed over their connection, and she hugged him tightly before heading for her room.

The Doctor stayed in the control room for a few minutes, wondering what exactly the night would hold. Before Krop Tor, Rose had still held him slightly at a distance. Maybe she finally trusted him again.

He stopped in his room to change into a pair of pyjama bottoms. He debated the vest for a moment and finally opted to leave it on.

Rose’s door was open a crack and he pushed through. She was already lying down on the far side of the bed, laying on her side facing away from him. He hesitated for a moment, but the covers on the near side of the bed were flipped up in invitation, so he slid in beside her.

He heard her exhalation and knew she hadn’t been certain he’d come. He looked over at her back. He couldn’t see her face, but he needed…

The Doctor rolled onto his side and pulled Rose close so her backside was flush with his front. She took his hand and kissed his palm, and he nuzzled into her neck. “We made it,” he whispered.

“Yeah, we did. We’re home.”

The moment wasn’t anything like he’d expected, but it was still perfect. “I love you.”

Rose sighed and turned over to snuggle into his side. She pressed a kiss to his jaw, then whispered in his ear, “I love you too, my Doctor.”


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We've come to what I've dubbed "the fluff section." Rose and the Doctor still go on a few adventures--they wouldn't be them if they didn't--but the focus in the next few chapters is on their developing relationship. When we get to Fear Her, the action will kick back into full swing and not quit until Doomsday.

The Doctor blinked, coming out of sleep slowly. Rose’s soft body curled up beside him told him instantly where he was, and contentment washed over him. He’d finally let down the last of his walls and told her he loved her, and the world hadn’t ended.

 _What comes next? Surely I love you isn’t the end of a relationship._ He frowned in consideration, thinking over what little he knew of human courtship.

He’d never had any desire to follow human customs before, but he’d never pursued a romantic relationship with a human before.Suddenly, surprising Rose with the most romantic experience of her life was of the utmost importance.

Rose was just entering her second REM cycle, so the Doctor knew he had time before she woke up. He slid out of bed and stole from the room. Twenty minutes later, he was dressed and in the library, scanning the shelves for any reference on human customs or courtship rituals. He could recall thousands of scenarios from telly and film, but who knew how realistic those were? And did he really want to copy something from a Hugh Grant film anyway?

An hour of searching left him empty handed. The only thing he found was Rose’s stash of romance novels, which he put those in the same category as telly and films. “I know I have books on human social customs,” he muttered.

His connection with the TARDIS buzzed with her amusement. _Did you hide the books I’m looking for?_ he asked rhetorically. _Well, how am I supposed to plan the perfect date for Rose?_

Her answer was a mental shrug. The Doctor pressed his lips into a thin line and strode purposefully toward the control room. Ignoring the TARDIS’s exasperation, he logged onto the internet. A quick search for “human dating customs” yielded dozens of pages of results, but halfway down the first page, a title caught his eye: “The 33rd Century Human: Dating Rules for a Modern Era.”

He pored over the article eagerly. A few points were discounted by their unique circumstances. (He wouldn’t be picking her up, for instance, and since they lived together, he could be fairly certain she’d be available on short notice.) Others struck home—especially one that warned against showing off.

By the time Rose would usually wake up, he had a general idea of what to do. He printed out the article, folded it up, and stuck it in his jacket pocket to reference later as he completed his plans, and then went to the galley to make breakfast.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Rose’s first thought when she woke up alone was that the Doctor’s old fears had finally gotten the better of him. However, his happiness bubbled over their connection and into her own mind, triggering a fit of giggles.

“The Doctor finally said he loved me!” She let the words hang in the air for a moment, still almost unable to believe it. “And he slept in my bed, not because of nightmares or because there wasn’t any other place to sleep. And Mickey never thought he’d ever get up the courage to do anything about this thing between us.”

Thoughts of Mickey dimmed her joy a little, but she shook them off as best she could and rolled out of bed. Who knew what the Doctor was up to, but she was hungry and ready for breakfast.

The Doctor met her in the corridor halfway to the galley. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothin’ that I know of.”

He tilted his head slightly and looked down at her. “Right. It’s just… I thought… you felt… sad.”

Rose wrapped her arms around the Doctor. “I love you,” she mumbled into his chest.

“I love you too, but that doesn’t…”

“Doesn’t matter what I was thinking about. I don’t really wanna talk about sad things today, yeah?”

He hugged her close. “If you say so, Rose. But I’m here if you change your mind.”

Rose smiled up at him, a little jolt of pleasure shooting through her when his eyes automatically dropped to her mouth. “So, what were you up to that you couldn’t still be in bed when I woke up?”

The Doctor rolled his eyes and led the way to the galley. “If that’s the response I get when I spend half the night on a surprise for you…”

She cocked an eyebrow, then sniffed. “Is your surprise burnt porridge?”

He cursed and ran back to the galley just in time to stop breakfast from completely boiling over. Rose giggled as she filled the kettle and turned it on, and he pointed the spoon at her. “I had things well in hand.”

She tossed a grin over her shoulder at him while pulling mugs and bowls out of the cupboard. “Sure you did. Do you want a banana with yours?”

They finished preparing breakfast in tandem, just as they’d done hundreds of times before. “What do you want to do today?” he asked once they were seated with their tea and porridge.

She sighed and rolled her shoulders, still feeling the tension of the last few days. “I think I just wanna stay in and have a movie marathon or something. This week has been… it’d be nice to relax a bit, y’know?”

He hummed in agreement. “All day in the media room, just resting. That sounds perfect to me, Rose Tyler.” He fidgeted a bit with his spoon. “But then, tonight… would you like to go out for supper?”

His meaning was immediately obvious, but she double-checked anyway. “Like a date?”

He rubbed at the back of his neck. “Yeah. It’s just… I realised this morning that we’ve done this all a bit backwards. Said I love you, never been on a date.”

Rose’s eyes widened. “I guess we haven’t,” she said slowly. “Didn’t really think you’d be interested in something so… ordinary and human.”

He sniffed. “Rose, you’re human. I want… I thought…”

She reached for his hand. “I love the idea,” she assured him. “So you got up to plan our date?”

“Something like that,” he said. Rose had a feeling there was a bit more to it than that, but she let it go.

“And?” He looked up at her, and she rolled her eyes at his furrowed brow. _Ridiculous alien._ “Where are we going?” she asked.

“Oh! I thought of the restaurant on Glaurus.”

“Oooh, the one with the fantastic crab cakes?” she asked, imitating his enthusiasm.

Her curiosity was piqued when the tips of his ears turned red. “Welllll… I might have said that’s why I liked going there, but I think I can now admit that the real reason is because it’s… well… the atmosphere is… and it’s…”

“Romantic?” Rose supplied, remembering the soft lighting and how the high backed booths created an intimate space.

“Something like that.”

The flush had spread to his cheeks, and she brushed a hand over his jaw. “That’s why I like it too.” They shared a shy grin.

Rose’s back spasmed when she stood up, and she grunted slightly. “What’s wrong?” the Doctor asked.

“Just my back.” She stretched carefully, but stopped when she felt the muscle straining. “Would you mind if we postponed our movie watching till this afternoon? I think I could use a good soak in the tub.”

“Not a problem, Rose. I’m sure there’s some sort of maintenance the TARDIS could use, or something.”

Rose placed a peck on his cheek. “You could always make our dinner reservations too,” she suggested.

“I could do that. Now you go relax, and I’ll see you in the media room in oh, say three hours?”

“Bring something to eat for lunch and you’ve got a deal,” she told him, then left the galley.

The Doctor wasn’t used to the idea of planning things far enough in advance to make reservations, but he wanted to go on a night with a full moon so they could take a walk on the cliff after dinner. Taking full advantage of the information available to him, he looked up both the weather and lunar cycles on Glaurus and settled on a date. A quick call to the restaurant locked in their reservation.

Arranging their date had only taken fifteen minutes, and Rose had said she wanted a few hours to relax. The Doctor fidgeted for a moment with the controls on the console, then sat on the jump seat and took the dating article out of his pocket and read it again.

The TARDIS, despite her earlier exasperation with his research, highlighted a paragraph.

6) Turn the conversation to your partner, instead of talking about yourself. Even if you are the cleverest person in the room, no one likes a show-off.

“Yes, all right,” the Doctor muttered. “I might occasionally like to show off, but even I know better than to do so on a date.” Her hum turned skeptical, and the Doctor rolled his eyes and shoved the article back into his pocket.

He spent the rest of the morning dusting and polishing the console. Dirt and grime working their way into the controls could easily cause his navigation calculations to be off by a few years, or a few light years.

The TARDIS nudged him when Rose was almost ready, and he stopped by the galley to put together a tray of snacks. He was almost to the media room when his keen ears picked up “We’ll come visit soon, all right Mum? Yeah, ‘course. We’re always careful. Love you.”

He leaned against the doorframe and observed Rose. Even if he hadn’t been able to feel her concern, he would have known something was bothering her. “Everything all right with Jackie?”

She looked up from her phone and brushed a strand of still damp hair over her ear. “Yeah. S’just… Sometimes I forget, when we’re out here, that she’s all alone back there.”

The Doctor set the tray down on a table, then sat on the couch next to Rose and pulled her close. “She’s not completely alone,” he pointed out. “She’s got Bev and her other friends, and your cousin Mo.”

Rose made a sound of disagreement. “Mo lives in the Peak District. She can’t exactly pop ‘round for tea and a chat.”

“Remember what you said the other day, Rose.” He pressed a kiss to the crown of her head. “Everyone leaves home eventually.”

“But not to fly around the universe in a time ship,” she countered. “Most people just… I dunno, move to Shoreditch or somethin’, get a flat of their own or live with a mate.”

Fear twisted in his gut. “Do you… do you regret coming with me?”

“What? No! I just wish she wasn’t alone, that’s all.” Rose grabbed his hand and looked at him earnestly. “Doctor, I _love_ you. I could never regret anything about our life.” She settled her head on his chest. “Meeting you was the best thing that ever happened to me.”

“Me too, Rose,” he said quietly, thinking of the man he’d been when he’d met her. He’d never told her what his plan had been that night. He’d set the charges on the roof, all right, but he hadn’t planned on walking away from the building. The last days of the Time War were so recent, and he hurt so much—he just wanted it to end. Being blown to bits would have made regeneration nearly impossible.

On some level, he realised that he’d need to tell her that story eventually. Complete intimacy between telepaths didn’t allow for walls or doors. Today wasn’t the day for that, though—and who knew if Rose would even agree to a bond?

Sensing his sudden melancholy, Rose jumped up and grabbed the remote. “If we don’t start the film soon, we won’t have time to finish before we need to get ready for our date,” she said.

When she turned back around, she was faced with a dilemma she hadn’t expected. Where was she supposed to sit? She glanced at the soft chaise lounge she favoured when she spent an evening alone in front of the telly, then over to the Doctor. They usually sat together when they were both watching, but they hadn’t been a couple then.

The Doctor stretched his arm out along the seam where the back of the sofa met the cushions in an obvious invitation, and Rose’s uncertainty vanished. She sat next to him and let him wrap his arm snugly around her waist.

“So what are we watching, Rose Tyler?” he said, and the vibrations of his voice against her ear sent pleasant shivers down her spine.

Afraid her voice would give her away, Rose simply hit play. When the coughs and video game music started, the Doctor hummed in contentment. “ _The Princess Bride_. Brilliant choice.”

“It seemed like a good film for a ‘day off from running’ veg session.”

“Oh yes.”

They were only about ten minutes in when Rose wondered if choosing a movie she knew so well had been a mistake. She could easily zone out for more than half of it and still know exactly what was going on… which made it hard to find motivation to pay attention.

Especially when there were other things she would much rather pay attention to, like the way the Doctor’s other hand (the one not wrapped tightly around her waist, and don’t think that wasn’t distracting) was running up and down her arm, or the way her position had naturally shifted until she had her head resting on his shoulder.

Given how reticent the Doctor had been to cross any lines between them, Rose had always figured it would take time for him to get past that reserve and be comfortable with physical displays of affection. In those calculations, she’d forgotten to allow for how tactile he was.

When Inigo and Fezzik started rhyming and the Doctor’s face stretched into a grin, Rose couldn’t take it anymore. She tilted her head back and placed a kiss on his jawline, right under his ear.

Rose smiled when she heard the hitch in his breathing and kissed him again, moving along his jaw toward his mouth. The hand on her waist flexed and the Doctor turned his head, his nose brushing against her hair.

“Rose,” he whispered. “I take it you’re not interested in watching the film.”

“Seen it dozens of times,” she murmured, placing a kiss on his chin. “Could quote it in my sleep.”

She shifted and tilted her head back so she could look him in the eye. The Doctor didn’t seem adverse to what she was doing, but she needed more confirmation than just the buzz of pleasure zipping over their connection. Liking the way something felt didn’t necessarily mean you wanted it to continue.

The half-lidded anticipation in his eyes erased all of Rose’s doubt, and she brushed her lips softly against his, savouring the slightly rough texture. Their kiss the night before had been too short for her to get used to the way he felt, the way he tasted. She planned to take her time this afternoon.

His full bottom lip had teased her for months, often distracting her at inopportune moments. Rose took it between her own lips now, relishing the sigh that drew from his mouth. Her tongue ran along lower edge of it, then she nipped ever so gently, feeling the spike of lust when she did and repeating the action.

The Doctor opened his mouth without any prodding from her, and she slipped her tongue inside, running it slowly over his teeth first. His tongue met hers then, in the first sign of the Doctor asserting any dominance in what had quickly become the best snog of Rose’s life. She sucked it into her mouth, delighting at the groan she tugged from his throat.

His free hand moved up to sink into her hair, and she let him adjust the angle slightly to allow the kiss to deepen. Outside of that movement, he seemed content to allow her to stay in control, and Rose rewarded him by flicking her tongue against the roof of his mouth.

Rose’s own desire spiralled higher by the second, and she pulled back for a moment to regain some control. But when she saw how the Doctor’s lips glistened from her kisses, she couldn’t resist the urge to get closer to him. Pressing her elbow into the back of the sofa, she leveraged her weight until she was straddling him.

“Rose,” he whispered, running his hands up and down her back.

He swallowed, and her eyes zeroed in on his Adam’s apple. Like his full lips, it too had distracted her far too often, and she took her revenge on it now, darting forward to nibble at it. The Doctor gasped and tilted his head to give her better access, which Rose took full advantage of, sealing her lips over the spot and sucking hard.

That proved to be the Doctor’s breaking point. In a movement too fast for her to register, Rose found herself on her back, looking into the Doctor’s dark eyes. “You, Rose Tyler, are a temptress,” he growled.

“Yeah, but I’m your temptress,” she countered, running her hands up his back and then sinking them into his hair and tugging.

The Doctor groaned and rocked his hips into hers, setting every nerve in Rose’s body on fire. A scant second passed before he captured her mouth with a hungry urgency that left her desperate for more.

The ring of her mobile jarred them both out of the moment. The Doctor’s lips migrated from her mouth to her jaw, then up to nibble on her ear. “Ignore it,” he said, and the gravelly note in his voice sent another wave of need through her.

But when it rang again only seconds after it stopped the first time, he groaned in disappointment and sat back on his haunches. “Since the invention of the kiss, Rose Tyler, there have been five rated the most unfairly interrupted. This one surpassed them all.”

Rose burst out laughing. “I don’t think that’s how the line goes, Doctor,” she said as she reached for her phone.

“Yeah, well that’s just because I hadn’t met you yet when I helped William Goldman write the script,” he grumbled.

That sent Rose into another fit of laughter, and she missed answering the phone a second time. “Maybe they’ll give up,” the Doctor said hopefully, but Rose rolled her eyes and reached for the phone.

“Two missed calls from Mum,” Rose mumbled, some of her amusement draining away.

“Nothing new there,” the Doctor said.

The phone rang again and Rose sat up and answered. “Mum?” 

“Rose! Well I don’t know why you keep that mobile with you if you’re not going to answer!”

“Mum, we just talked,” Rose pointed out. She felt the Doctor snap to attention and smirked a little at the thought that she’d distracted him so thoroughly that he’d forgotten that.

“Oh, is that how you say hello now? That alien of yours is rubbing off on you a little too much, Rose.”

Rose flushed bright pink as she thought of all the ways she’d like the Doctor to rub off on her. “Sorry, Mum. I’m just confused is all. Is something wrong?”

Jackie sighed, and Rose recognised the sound of her trying to hold back angry tears. “I swear I didn’t know what he was after, Rose,” she said.

“What who was after?” Rose asked.

 _What is it?_ the Doctor mouthed to her. Rose just shook her head and pointed to the door. She had a feeling they were taking a trip to London before their date.

“This bloke I met at the laundry a few weeks ago. I found your picture in his pocket tonight.”

“Tell me exactly when it is for you, and we’ll be there in ten minutes.”

“You’re sure he can land so accurately?”

Rose took in the tense lines of the Doctor’s body. He’d picked up enough of her shifting emotions to be on edge. “I promise, we’ll be there.”

“Only one time you promised me ten seconds, and it was weeks before I saw you again, Rose.”

“Mum! Just tell me when it is, and we’ll be there.” She listened carefully and had to promise a third time to make sure the Doctor didn’t muck up the landing before her mum let her hang up.

“Mum needs help. Some bloke latched onto her; she thought he was interested in her, and then she found my picture in his pocket.”

“Did she say when she was?” he asked, ready to punch in the coordinates.

“March 6th, 2007. She was calling at 9 pm, said to land in the living room in case anyone’s looking for the TARDIS.” She slipped her fingers through his. “This is… I don’t like it.”

“Neither do I,” the Doctor said. “Someone going around London with a picture of you in their pocket? If I had to guess, I’d say someone is trying to find us.”

“That’s what Mum said too.”

“Next stop: Powell Estate.” He put his hand on the lever, then looked at her and shook his head.

“What is it? I told Mum we’d be there.”

“Oh, we will Rose. But…” He gestured to her hair, and Rose ran her fingers through it, wincing when she snagged them on a tangle. “You show up looking like that, and Jackie’ll take one look at you and slap me into my next regeneration.”

He moved to stand behind the jump seat and patted it. Rose raised an eyebrow, but followed his silent cue. A moment later, she felt his long fingers running through her hair. “Doctor… I don’t think this is going to get us to London any quicker,” she said, biting back a moan.

“Hush,” he said, and she was gratified to hear a husky note in his voice. “I’m just going to braid this for you quickly so we can go rescue Jackie from the attentions of your stalker.”

His nimble fingers made quick work of the tangles and then parted her hair into two sections. “You have hairbands in your pockets, I trust?” he said as he plaited the first section.

Rose shifted on the jump seat so she could reach into her pocket. She handed one to him just as he finished, and he bound it and moved on to the other one.

When he was done, she stood up and turned around, aware of a slight flush in her cheeks. “Ta,” she said. “Wouldn’t want Mum to think I’d been snogging my alien boyfriend on the sofa.”

He snorted and moved back to the console. “Let’s try to keep your alien boyfriend alive a little longer.” 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Jackie was laying on the sofa when they arrived, curled in a ball around a pillow. The sight of her all forlorn sent a surprising wave of protectiveness through the Doctor. “Tell me what happened, Jackie.”

She sat up and sniffed, and Rose handed her a tissue. “Thanks, sweetheart.” The Doctor waited patiently while mother and daughter hugged, and then Jackie started to talk. “I met him at the laundrette. He seemed like such a nice man, there doing his own laundry instead of going to his mum’s. I didn’t know him, thought maybe he was new… and he was young and sorta fit, so…”

“So you flirted,” Rose said, a hint of a smile in her voice. 

Jackie just shrugged. “Well, it taught me a lesson, that’s for sure. He came over a few times to fix things around the flat.”

The Doctor’s eyebrows rose. He knew for a fact that almost everything in the Tyler flat was in perfect working order, because he took care of it himself. _Pity the man who faces Jackie Tyler flirting._

“An’ then tonight, after I talked to you the first time, he went out for a pizza, and that’s when I found your picture in his pocket, Rose.”

She held it out and the Doctor took it, mentally cursing in five different languages. It had been taken the night Rose had left with him, which meant someone was surreptitiously keeping track of himself and his companions.

“What was his name, Jackie?”

“Elton.”

“Elton, Elton… why is that name familiar?” The Doctor tugged at his hair, trying to think. “Oh! Yes! He’s part of that LINDA lot.”

Rose and Jackie looked at him blankly. “Linda?” Jackie repeated. “Who’s she?”

“Not Linda, a woman, LINDA—London Investigations ’n Detective Agency,” the Doctor explained. Rose giggled. “Yeah, well I didn’t come up with it.”

“Who are they then?” Jackie asked.

The Doctor straightened the knot on his tie. “They’re sort of like my fan club.”

She snorted. “You have a fan club? Obviously they haven’t met you.”

“Oi!”

“Well, if he’s part of this fan club, I guess that explains why he was looking for you,” Jackie said.

“Yeah… Maybe I should drop in on their next meeting, satisfy their curiosity.”

Jackie stood up and went into the kitchen to fill the kettle. “It’s too late to track them down tonight. Do you want to stay here or in your box?”

Rose rolled her eyes. “Time machine, Mum. We’ll just jump ahead to tomorrow and give LINDA the surprise of their lives.”

The Doctor beamed at her. “If I didn’t know better, Rose Tyler, I’d think you’d been a time traveller your whole life.”

Jackie shook her head. “It’s mad, the life you two lead. Skipping time, having tea on Saturn…”

“Jackie, Saturn’s a gas giant. No one has tea on Saturn. Now there is a tea shop on Titan with an excellent view of the rings, but—”

Rose elbowed him. “Not the point, Doctor,” she hissed, and he looked over at Jackie’s annoyed face. “Let’s just get this Elton bloke sorted, yeah?”

“Right, absolutely. Of course. We’ll take care of Elton for you Jackie, you have my word.”

And he meant it. Despite all his eye rolling and teasing, Jackie Tyler was the closest thing he had to extended family. He would not stand for anyone messing with her, especially not if they were also after Rose.

Back in the TARDIS, Rose leaned against one of the struts while he went to the terminal and started a scan. “So how are we really going to find this Elton?” she asked. “Knowing he’s a member of LINDA doesn’t tell you where he lives.”

The Doctor shook his head. “There’s something odd going on. LINDA has been meeting for months without actually attempting to find me. Doesn’t it seem odd to you that they’ve suddenly decided they need to track me down badly enough to go through Jackie?”

Rose frowned. “Yeah, a bit,” she said after a minute.

“My guess is someone is using LINDA to do their dirty work for them, and that someone is most likely alien. So I’m going to do exactly what you’ve always wanted, and scan for alien tech.”

Rose grinned and bit her lip. “At last, a bit of Spock,” she teased.

The Doctor looked at the results at they came up on the TARDIS monitor. “That’s weird,” he said. “Something’s causing a limitation field.”

“You mean like… trying to make something smaller than it actually is?”

He nodded, impressed at how quickly she’d put that together.

“That’s a bit… Slitheen, isn’t it?” Rose asked.

“Similar, yeah.” 

“Which means…”

“Alien tech,” he told her with a grin. He adjusted the coordinates ever so slightly. A small hop like this was actually harder than moving across centuries or galaxies, and given his experience the last time he’d tried to move just a few hours ahead, he wouldn’t take any chances.

“Ready?” She nodded, and he set them in motion.

The TARDIS materialised with barely a shudder, and Rose was outside almost before the Doctor realised they’d landed. She left the door ajar, and over her shoulder, he could see a man he supposed must be Elton backed against a brick wall by a large green alien.

This was the bloke who’d upset Jackie, who’d been looking for Rose, who’d nearly derailed their date? “You upset my mum,” the Doctor heard Rose say as he followed her outside and closed the TARDIS doors behind him.

Elton blinked and looked to his left. “Great big absorbing creature from outer space, and you’re having a go at me?”

The Doctor winced. _Wrong move, Elton._

Rose’s anger grew into a towering rage. “No one upsets my mum.”

The green alien looked at the Doctor with eyes glowing in glee. “At last. The greatest feast of all. The Doctor,” he said, licking his lips.

The Doctor looked him over, quickly realising what the limitation field was for. The rather rotund alien controlled an absorption matrix. _And maybe that’s where the rest of LINDA is._ “Interesting. A sort of Absorbatrix? Absorbaclon? Absorbaloff?”

The alien bounced on toes at the last suggestion. “Absorbaloff, yes.”

Rose leaned in. “He really does look a bit Slitheen, doesn’t he?”

The Doctor looked the alien up and down, seeing certain similarities. “Not from Raxacoricofallapatorius, are you?”

“No, I’m not.” The Absorbaloff wrinkled his nose. They’re swine. I spit on them. I was born on their twin planet.”

The Doctor blinked. “Really? What’s the twin planet of Raxacoricofallapatorius?”

“Clom.”

“Clom.” After the long name of the Slitheen home world, he hadn’t expected a single syllable answer.

“Clom. Yes. And I’ll return there victorious, once I possess your travelling machine.”

The words, _Over my dead body,_ occurred to him. “Well, that’s never going to happen.”

But the Absorbaloff gurgled out what might be a laugh. “Oh, it will. You’ll surrender yourself to me, Doctor, or this one dies.”

The Doctor spotted a silver cane lying on the pavement at Elton’s feet. _The source of the limitation field no doubt. Now to get the remaining members of LINDA to see they have a chance to stop what happened to them from happening to anyone else._

“You see, I’ve read about you, Doctor. I’ve studied you. So passionate, so sweet. You wouldn’t let an innocent man die. And I’ll absorb him, unless you give yourself to me.”

The Doctor rubbed his hand against the back of his neck. “Sweet, maybe. Passionate, I suppose.” He felt Rose’s agreement and nearly lost his train of thought. “But don’t ever mistake that for nice. Do what you want.” He half turned back to the TARDIS, keeping his face void of all concern or interest.

Clearly, the Absorbaloff hadn’t expected that answer. “He’ll die, Doctor,” he expounded.

Elton looked at him in fear and disbelief, but the Doctor couldn’t let his mask break. “Go on, then.”

“So be it.”

The big green hand was at Elton’s forehead when the Doctor made his move. “Mind you, the others might have something to say.”

“Others?” Elton repeated blankly.

From the Absorbaloff’s stomach, a woman wearing a pair of glasses spoke. “He’s right. The Doctor’s right. We can’t let him. Oh, Mr. Skinner, Bridget, pull!”

“No!” The alarm on the Absorbaloff’s face didn’t move the Doctor at all. This creature had had his second chance—and third and fourth, judging by the number of faces pressing against his skin.

“For God’s sake, pull!” The alien kept protesting, but LINDA started to work together one last time. “If it’s the last thing we ever do. Bliss! All of us together. Come on, pull!”

“Stop it!”

The bespectacled woman ignored him and shouted at her friends. “LINDA united, pull!”

The Doctor frowned. The force from inside should have been enough to pulled the alien apart, so how was he— _oh, the limitation field!_

The cane dropped to the ground, and the woman shouted, “Elton, the cane. Break it!”

Elton had been watching in horrified astonishment, but he grabbed the cane and snapped it in half over his knee. It sparked, and a blue light glowed from the pewter hand on top.

“My cane. You stupid man. Oh no!” Instead of pulling into pieces, the Absorbaloff dissolved into liquid and soaked into the concrete.

“What did I do?” Elton asked.

The Doctor looked down at the pavement. “The cane created a limitation field. Now that it’s broken, he can’t stop. The absorber is being absorbed.”

“By what?”

He felt a moment of regret for the four humans he hadn’t been able to save, and for Elton’s shock. “By the earth.”

The woman in glasses spoke one last time. “Bye bye, Elton. Bye bye.” Then she disappeared into the paving stone.

The sadness on Elton’s face was too much for Rose. “Who was she?”

“That was Ursula.”

His grief was something they were both familiar with, and Rose sat down on the step next to him, hugging him in comfort. She looked up at the Doctor. _Can we do anything?_ her eyes asked.

The Doctor sifted through his thoughts, trying to find an answer that would bring a smile to Rose’s face, but Elton spoke before he came up with anything.

“You know, when I met you a few weeks ago, I thought, ‘Oh, this it what it’s like to have an adventure with the Doctor. Big aliens and two buckets and not blue.’ I didn’t think…”

“Hang on, we’ve met before?” the Doctor cut in.

“You remember. In Woolwich? The warehouse? Nasty roaring alien, and the two of you running around nonstop?”

“That… that certainly sounds like something we might do,” the Doctor said slowly. “It hasn’t happened for us though.”

Elton stared at him, clearly not registering what he was saying. The Doctor sighed. “We’re time travellers; sometimes we meet people out of order. It can be a bit confusing, but that’s the fun of it.”

The Doctor looked at Elton again, and his irritation faded into sympathy. He sat down on the other side of Elton. “We have met before though, you and I,” he said quietly. Elton looked at him, a question in his eyes. “You don’t remember, do you?”

He took a deep breath. “There was a shadow in your house. A living shadow in the darkness. An elemental shade had escaped from the Howling Halls. I stopped it, but I wasn’t in time to save her. I’m sorry.”

Elton clasped his hands together in front of him and looked at the sky. “My mother,” he choked out. “I came downstairs because I heard your ship, and I went into the living room… you were standing there, and my mother… she was…” He pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. “She was already dead.”

The Doctor nodded soberly.

“And you looked at me and you just said… ‘I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.’ And then you disappeared.” Elton looked over at him. “And that was just a few weeks ago for you?”

The Doctor nodded at the TARDIS. “I told you, we’re time travellers.”

“So you couldn’t go back a few more minutes and get there in time to save her?”

“It doesn’t work like that, Elton,” Rose said quietly. “Once you’re already there, going back further in your own timeline is dangerous. I know; I tried to save my dad’s life.”

Elton grabbed her hand and leaned into her shoulder. “I just wish… I lost her, and now Ursula…”

An idea occurred to the Doctor, and he jumped to his feet and walked back to the paving stone that had once held Ursula’s face. This idea might work and it might not, but he wanted to try for Elton.

He adjusted the settings on the sonic and aimed it at the ground. “If I can key into the absorption matrix and separate the last victim. It’s too late for total reconstruction, but—” A face bubbled up, pink skin and glasses. “Elton! Fetch a spade!”

Elton just stared at him, but Rose darted into the TARDIS, reappearing a moment later with a spade in hand. She handed it to Elton and nodded toward the pavement. “There you go,” she said encouragingly.

The paver came out of the ground more easily than the Doctor’d expected. Even with Elton being careful not to get too near Ursula’s face with the tool, it still only took a moment before they were hefting her up together.

“Well! It’s not the most conventional rescue I’ve ever done, but it’s something,” the Doctor said. Elton was too entranced by the sight of Ursula’s face to pay much attention to him.

Rose moved forward and laced her fingers through his, squeezing his hand tight. “We’ve gotta go back to my mum, tell her everything’s taken care of. Will you be all right on your own?”

Elton nodded. “Yeah… yeah, thanks Rose. Thank you, Doctor.”

The Doctor clapped him on the shoulder. “Just go out there and live your life, Elton.”

He followed Rose back into the TARDIS. “Well that was an unexpected adventure.”

“I think most of our adventures fall under that category.”

“True. So, back to the living room, or is it safe to land in the park this time?”

Rose shook her head. “Living room,” she said decisively. “This is just a quick stop to tell Mum she doesn’t have to worry anymore, and then you, Doctor, are taking me on a date—or have you forgotten?”

His hearts flipped. “I’m not likely to forget that.”

Jackie was waiting in the living room when they stepped out. “Well?”

“Taken care of, Jackie,” the Doctor told her.

“What was it?”

“An alien, using my fan club to find me.”

“And this alien knew you travel with my Rose?”

Rose sighed. “Mum…”

Jackie rolled her eyes. “Fine then. If you’re okay with the universe knowing you travel with the Doctor, I won’t say anything.”

Guilt shot through the Doctor, and Rose spun around to look at him. Her fear was palpable, and he shook his head. Jackie might be right. Being with him might put Rose in danger from people who’d want to hurt him. But he wouldn’t be the one who hurt her by backing away again.

“Can’t you at least stay for tea?” Jackie asked. “I’ve got those biscuits you like so much, Doctor.”

Rose answered before he could. “We’ve actually got dinner plans, Mum.”

Jackie Tyler might not have book smarts, but she knew people and she definitely knew her daughter. “Oh, he’s finally taking you on a proper date is he?” she asked. “It’s about time then, Doctor.”

 

AN: If you’re interested, you can read the Doctor’s dating article when I post it on Saturday as Chapter 24.


	24. Chapter 24

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor's article on dating advice. He should have remembered modern isn't the same as contemporary.

Chapter 24

**The 33** ** rd ** **Century Human: Dating Rules for a Modern Era**

Each culture and species has its own set of customs regarding dating; however, we believe the rules listed here can be easily adapted by all. After all, the root of each rule is respect for your partner, and that should be the standard planet-wide.

Antiquated dating rules were separated into a list for “girls” and for “guys.” We have changed the language to “asked” and “asking,” to reflect a modern understanding of gender and sexuality.

**If you were asked:**

1) Please give an answer within twenty-four hours. It is acceptable to say you need to check your schedule; it is not acceptable to wait until the evening before to decline the invitation.

2) Along those same lines, once you have accepted, you should keep the date unless an unforeseen conflict arises.

3) Be ready when your date arrives, or, if you are meeting somewhere, be prompt in showing up.

4) Do not offer to pay on the first date.

**If you asked:**

1) If possible, give them a reasonable amount of time to consider your invitation. Occasionally a spontaneous situation may arise when it is acceptable to ask someone out for the next evening, but generally we advise at least five days’ notice.

2) If you are picking your date up at home, go to their door. Be on time. If you are meeting them, be prompt.

3) On the first date, make sure you bring enough money to pay. If the first date leads to a relationship, there will come a point where it is acceptable to “go Dutch,” as some cultures used to say, meaning to split the cost of the outing.

_We realise the next two rules might seem old-fashioned, but when performed with a level of respect, we believe they convey the sense that you are truly interested in them. Remember, you are trying to elicit a similar interest from them. These rules help you put your best foot forward._

4) If it is chilly, offer to help them into their coat.

5) Offer to open doors for your date. If the first offer is declined, respect their wishes.

6) Offer them your arm. This gesture usually goes over very well.

**General date etiquette:**

1) Dress smart, but wear clothes you are comfortable in. You wouldn’t want to spend the entire date subtly shifting your clothing around.

2) If you have visited the restaurant before with another date and the wait staff recognise you, do not talk with them about your previous date.

3) Grooming at the table is not acceptable. There should be no need to fuss with your hair or touch up your make-up.

4) Use the proper utensils, unless you are eating finger foods.

5) Don’t get drunk. Drinking often leads to silliness, which is not attractive. Certainly never drink to the point of passing out. (But hopefully that goes without saying.)

6) Turn the conversation to your partner, instead of talking about yourself. Even if you are the cleverest person in the room, no one likes a show-off.

7) Mind the public displays of affection. If your relationship is new, constantly pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable while in public puts pressure on your date when you are alone. If your relationship is established, you should be secure enough  about your sex life to keep it between you and your partner.

**Of special note for first dates:**

No kissing. Yes, again, we realise this seems ridiculously old-fashioned, and we certainly won’t judge you if you choose to disregard this rule entirely. However, please consider our reasoning behind it first.

Saving the first kiss for the second date lets your partner know you are interested in them personally, rather than just physically. It says you like them well enough to put kissing off to the second date, because you are sure there will be a second date. And if you don’t see yourself going out with them again, you probably aren’t interested in kissing them anyway.


	25. Chapter 25

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor and Rose finally get to their date.

Chapter 25

The Doctor took them back into the Vortex, and Rose laughed when he added a spin to the normal dematerialisation routine. “In a good mood, Doctor?” she teased.

“Absolutely tops, Rose Tyler,” he said. “Now, if the universe would be kind enough not to interrupt again, we have a date to get to.”

She raised her eyebrows. “Whatever happened to, ‘Never early or late when you have a time machine, Rose?’”

“Ah. Never early or late, unless we have dinner reservations?”

Rose chuckled at his cheeky grin, then pointed toward her room. “I’ll just… I’m going to go get ready. Since apparently we don’t want to be late.”

She ran her fingers along the corridor wall as she walked to her room, and the TARDIS hummed in her head. The sensation felt… smug, and Rose focused on her connection with the ship, searching for a reason.

But she didn’t need to look any farther than her own room and the dress stretched out on the bed. “Oh,” she breathed. “Are you sure? He didn’t seem all that impressed with it last time.”

The TARDIS gave her a mental roll of the eyes, and Rose bit her lip. “All right then, if you’re sure.” She stripped to her knickers, then pulled on her dressing gown to keep warm while she did her hair.

Looking at her reflection in the mirror, Rose tugged gently on one of the braids and shivered when she remembered how the Doctor’s hands had felt as they’d moved so gracefully through her hair. There was another reason to enjoy the braids too—her hair would hold a curl better tonight, thanks to the waves being plaited damp had given it.

She quickly shook out the braids, then used a curling iron to create a mass of ringlets. Her hair was barely long enough for what she wanted to do, but the hair clip she’d gotten on Telera was specially designed to hold a style in place and hide under the curls. She used it to gather the fatter curls loosely on top of her head, leaving the tighter curls  loose to frame her face.

Back in her room, Rose put on a pair of sheer black stockings, then looked at the dress again. “You’re positive this is what I should wear.” A matching wrap and shoes appeared on her bed, and she let out an amused sigh. “I’ll take that for a yes,” she said, and pulled it on, grateful again for the TARDIS’ self-lacing corsets.

Her skilled hand did her make up in minutes, and then she slipped the shoes on and picked up the wrap. She caught a glimpse of herself in the full length mirror in her room and drew in a breath. She looked… grown up. Mature. _Happy._ Some of the tension eased out of her, and she went to join the Doctor.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Keeping in mind the suggestions in the article, the Doctor dressed in his comfortable brown suit after his shower. He carefully arranged his hair, remembering that it wouldn’t be appropriate to fix it at the dinner table (not that he would do so anyway) and went to the console room to wait for Rose.

He felt a flash of panic when he heard Rose’s heels click down the corridor, remembering the article had said to pick the date up at her door. It was too late for that now. _I’ll just have to do better at everything else,_ he vowed.

Then she stepped into view and he forgot everything but how beautiful she was. She’d done her hair in soft ringlets pulled up on top of her head, with a few dangling down to frame her face. His gaze lingered on lips that had been painted a rich wine shade, then continued down to the dress he’d seen once before.

The black corseted bodice showed off curves his fingers suddenly itched to touch. Then Rose’s hands brushed against the full burgundy skirt, and the hint of discomfort he caught from her pushed the lust to the back of his mind. He frowned and looked up, but she wouldn’t meet his eyes. “Is it too much?” she asked. “It’s just… the TARDIS had it in my room when we got back from Mum’s, so I thought maybe…”

The Doctor reached for her hand and pulled her closer. “She probably thought it was about time I made up for the very first time I tried to distance myself from you.”

She peeked up at him through her eyelashes. “Yeah?”

He looked her up and down, taking in the Victorian gown she’d worn when they’d met Dickens. “You, Rose Tyler, are beautiful.”

“Not just for a human?” she teased, letting him see a hint of her tongue.

For the first time, he let her see his admiration without any barriers. “For anyone. You are stunning, and I’ve always thought so.”

Her eyes sparkled at him. “I see you haven’t changed your clothes, just like last time.”

“I put on a clean shirt and tie,” he protested.

“Don’t worry about it, Doctor.” She leaned closer and whispered, “I happen to think pinstripes are sexy.”

He tugged on his collar. “Do you now?”

Rose nodded. “Thought jumpers and leather coats were sexy too, if we’re confessing things.”

The admission floored the Doctor. He’d known, or hoped at least, that Rose had cared for him back then, but he hadn’t dreamt she’d found him attractive. Judging by her smug smile, she knew exactly how that admission had hit him.

Unable to resist the urge to even things out a bit, he leaned forward and whispered in her ear. “Someday I’ll tell you exactly what I was thinking the first time I saw you in that dress.”

He felt the shiver that went through her and pulled back, satisfied. Rose drew in a breath and said, “Don’t we have a reservation?”

“Right, yeah, we should…” He hesitated for a moment. _Should I take her arm or open the door?_ The door seemed to make more sense, and a moment later they were stepping out into the cool night air of Glaurus.

The Doctor closed the door behind them, and then offered Rose his arm. “Miss Tyler, would you do me the honour of joining me for dinner?”

All the confidence her reaction had given him a moment ago evaporated as he waited for her response. He’d been flirting with Rose from the moment he’d regenerated, but to actually push that from teasing into something real was… well, there was a reason he hadn’t done it before.

And walking arm in arm was something different for them. They held hands, they always held hands, but the article had specifically said to offer your date your arm. But if Rose didn’t like it, he wouldn’t do it again, and maybe the article was wrong, and how would he know?

He didn’t feel any confusion or disapproval though, just affection and respect. He let out a deep breath as she slipped her arm through his. “It would be my pleasure, Doctor.”

They strolled together through the seaside town, nodding at the locals with their lavender skin and violet hair. A few human tourists appeared among the evening crowd, but it was autumn on Glaurus—not exactly high season.

The restaurant was perched on top of the cliff that overlooked the Sea of Sania, and they both enjoyed the view for a moment before the door opened. “Doctor, Rose. We have your table ready,” the host said.

“Yes, sorry for keeping you waiting,” the Doctor said, wincing a bit. The article had said not to keep the date waiting. Did it also mean not to keep the restaurant waiting?

The host shook his head. “Not to worry!” he said cheerfully. “I can’t blame you for enjoying the view on a night like tonight.”

They all stepped inside, and the host led them to their table. They were seated by the window at a small table that was hidden in the corner. “I believe this is what you asked for, sir?”

The Doctor nodded and caught a hint of a smile on Rose’s face. “This is perfect,” he assured the man.

“Very good. I’m Kendel, and your server tonight will be Tarron.”

“So you asked for the most secluded table in the restaurant?” Rose asked once he’d walked away.

“Most secluded with the best view,” he corrected, nodding to the window. The sun had only set an hour ago, and the blue of the sky blended from almost turquoise at the horizon to indigo at its zenith.

The Doctor reached across the table and took her hand. Rose tried not to shiver at the feeling of his fingers lacing through hers; hand holding wasn’t anything new, but somehow it felt different tonight. _Maybe it feels more intimate because he’s been so formal about everything._

She tightened her hand around his and smiled. “I never thought we’d be doing this.”

To her surprise, he smiled softly. “Oh, I think this has been inevitable since, ‘Run,’ Rose Tyler.”

“Really?”

“Really.” He stroked his thumb over her pulse point. “I might have fought—” She snorted, and he grinned at her. “All right, I did fight. But I only fought because I knew, deep down, that this was coming eventually, and I didn’t know…”

He broke off, and she felt a hint of familiar guilt. “Hey, none of that tonight,” she admonished him. “We’re here now, and that’s all that matters.”

The Doctor opened his mouth, but their server appeared before he could argue. “Good evening, and welcome to Glaurus. Can I interest you in some Rigellian wine?”

Rose lit up. Rigellian wine was her favourite, but it was also one of the rarest in the galaxy. The Doctor smiled. “That would be lovely, thank you.”

The server turned their wine glasses right side up. “Are you ready to order, or shall I give you a few more minutes to decide?”

Rose and the Doctor both chuckled. “Oh, we always order the same thing,” she said, rattling their regular off. “And make sure to bring extra crab cakes,” she added, winking at the Doctor.

The server jotted their order down on his notepad. “Very well. I’ll give this to the kitchen and be back in a moment with your wine.”

“I like having favourite places,” Rose said once he’d left. “It makes me feel… I dunno. Normal? Like, that’s something people who don’t fly through time and space have, right? Their favourite chippy, favourite curry house…”

“A spot of normalcy in our very unique lives,” he agreed. “And it doesn’t hurt that they really do have the best crab cakes in the galaxy.”

She looked at him slyly. “I thought that wasn’t really why we came here though.”

Their server’s return with the wine interrupted his answer. “The crab cakes will be out in a few minutes, and your meal will follow shortly. Is there anything else I can get you right now?”

“No, thank you. That will be all.”

Rose raised an eyebrow once he’d left. “Well, are the crab cakes why this is our favourite place?”

He tightened his fingers around hers. “No, they’re not. Now, I propose a toast, Rose Tyler,” he said, lifting his glass. She mirrored him, and he said, “To second chances. I guess I’m that sort of man after all.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

After they’d eaten and he’d paid (at which point Rose had teasingly pointed out the difference between this and their other first date), he asked, “Would you like to take a walk before going home?”

“Sure. It’s too lovely an evening to just rush back inside.”

He offered her his arm again and led the way to the cliff walk. “How come we’ve never walked here before, Doctor?” she asked.

“Well, there’s a limit on what I can pretend isn’t romantic. Intimate candlelit restaurants? Maybe. Moonlit walks under the stars? That’s a little harder to ignore.”

Rose laughed again and tightened her arm around his. “And how well did you really do at pretending the restaurant wasn’t romantic?” she asked.

He cleared his throat. “Ah.”

The breeze carried a hint of salt air up from the ocean below, and Rose took a deep breath. “I love the sea,” she said, leaning against his arm.

In all the films they’d watched, this would be where the bloke would say something cheesy like, “And I love you.” The Doctor was thankful he’d researched, or he might have been tempted to follow suit.

Instead, he stopped and pulled her close so they were both looking out at the ocean and sky. She shivered and he wrapped his arms more tightly around her. “Cold?” he whispered in her ear.

She shivered again. “No.”

The implication shook his resolve, and he couldn’t keep his lips from brushing against her ear, then traveling up to place a kiss on her temple. _That’s not the kind of kiss the article meant,_ he told himself.

It did occur to him that not kissing on the first date might be a bit of a moot point when they’d spent a good portion of the afternoon snogging on the couch. But this was their official first date, and he wanted to get it absolutely right.

Her hands stroked his arms and he leaned closer on a sigh. “I love you.”

She tilted her head back so she could look him in the eye. “I love you too, Doctor.”

They watched the moonrise and enjoyed looking at the stars together. It was always a fun activity to point at the ones they’d been to and the ones he’d take her to next. He didn’t notice the night air getting colder until she shivered again, her wrap not offering much protection from the breeze.

“You’re cold, I’m sorry,” he said, pulling his coat off and settling it on her shoulders. “Let’s go home and warm up.”

Rose slipped her arm through his and fell into step beside him. “I wish we could stay forever,” she said, filling her lungs with the salt air. “Of course, it wouldn’t be a week before I’d be itching to travel again, but still…”

In front of the TARDIS, he dropped her arm for a moment to unlock the door. “We can always come back for a holiday someday,” he suggested as they stepped inside. “Stay for a few days, enjoy the local atmosphere.” She hummed in agreement.

The Doctor took Rose’s hand and led the way down the corridor. It only took a minute to reach her door, and she wished the TARDIS would have cooperated by moving it farther away from the control room. She held her breath, waiting for the Doctor’s kiss… but instead, he raised her hand and brushed his lips against it. “Good night, Rose,” he said and stepped back.

_All right, that’s taking the formality a bit too far._ She grabbed his elbow before he could turn to walk away. “Hang on,” she said lightly. “Where’s my good night kiss?”

He furrowed his brow. “I thought… the article said not to kiss on the first date.”

Her eyebrows flew up. “Do you have a copy of this article available for me to read?”

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded piece of A4 paper. The title was the first thing she saw when she unfolded it: “The 33rd Century Human: Dating Rules for a Modern Era.”

_Oh, this might explain a lot._ She read, mouthing words at times when the antiquated ideas struck her as particularly funny.

She’d just reached the end, and the admonition against kissing, when she registered his embarrassment. “No, no, it’s okay!”

“Then why are you laughing?”

She folded it back up and stuck it in his jacket pocket. “It’s just… this reads sorta like something from the 1950s.”

He closed his eyes and groaned. “I forgot, Earth went through a bit of a nostalgia period in the 33rd century. I just saw the word “modern” in the title and figured it was right.”

“I hafta admit, I wondered why you were offering me your arm and everything.”

“Then why didn’t you say anything?”

Now it was her turn to be embarrassed. “Well, I thought… I dunno, you’re not usually so formal, but I thought maybe it was the way your people… courted.”

He wrinkled his nose. “Time Lords didn’t court much,” he said. “Gallifreyans either. Relationships were arranged according to mental compatibility and what was politically expedient.”

Rose frowned. “That doesn’t sound like much fun.”

“Words which sum up my people pretty accurately. Why d’you think I left?”

“So there’s nothing I need to know about dating a Time Lord?”

His Adam’s apple bobbed. “There are a few things, but they’re mostly…” He raised a hand and ghosted it over her temple, and they both closed their eyes and sighed at the fleeting connection.

“But I don’t understand, Doctor. Why’d you research what to do on our date? You know me.”

“That’s why the TARDIS hid all the books,” the Doctor said, his face turning even redder than it had been a moment ago. “Because I didn’t need to do research to figure out what would make you happy.”

Rose hummed in agreement. “Smart girl, our TARDIS.”

“I just wanted everything to be perfect, and I realised that for all that I’ve spent most of my life surrounded by humans, and even watching human films, I don’t know much about the actual mechanics of human courtship.”

Even though the result had been a little off base in places, the thought that the Doctor had cared enough about their date to go to all that effort meant more to her than a by the book perfect date. _Now to get him past his embarrassment._ She leaned against her door, her smile deepening. “Maybe that’s true, but there’s one thing I know you understand the mechanics of.”

Never one to miss an invitation, he slid his arms around her and pulled her close. “I wanted to do this earlier, on the cliff,” he admitted when their lips were only a breath apart.

“And I wanted you to,” she breathed, then closed the gap.

After several glorious minutes, she pulled back, relishing the way his eyes glittered with lust. “I think it’s time for bed,” she said, putting her hand on the door knob.

He nodded several times before speaking, and she felt a thrill go through her at the obvious indication of her power over him. “Probably. I’ll see you in the morning, Rose.”

Rose watched him go, biting back the invitation that sprung to her lips. She wanted him, and she knew he wanted her, but the last thing she wanted was to chase him off by moving too quickly.

She brushed her fingers against her lips. _Besides,_ she thought with a secret smile, _a few weeks of kisses like that, and the anticipation will be more than worth the wait._


	26. Chapter 26

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A few secrets the Doctor's been keeping finally come to light.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The adventure referenced in the first part of this chapter comes from The Resurrection Casket by Justin Richards, one of my favourite Doctor Who novels.

Chapter 26

Rose jerked awake and stared blinking into the darkness. The steady hum of the TARDIS had been replaced by something more like the buzz of a light fixture right before the bulb blew.

The Doctor’s agitation pulsed over their connection, and Rose was already swinging her legs out of bed when he rapped sharply on her door. “You need to get up, Rose.”

The tension in his voice shivered down her spine and she reached for her bedside lamp as she sat up. Nothing happened. She hit the switch again, and still nothing happened. “Doctor, why isn’t the light working?”

He sighed, and she could picture him leaning against the other side of her door. “Nothing’s working. The TARDIS has been hit by something like an EMP; all the systems were knocked out.”

Rose swung her legs out of bed and made her way carefully to the door. Her eyes had adjusted to the darkness well enough to make out the outline of the Doctor standing in the corridor. “Then how am I supposed to get dressed?” she asked.

She heard fabric rustle and then felt the cool metal of the sonic when the Doctor pressed it into her hand. “You remember the torch setting, yeah?”

Rose ran her fingers along the cylinder until she felt the dial to adjust the setting. A few quick turns and the corridor filled with pale blue light.

“I guess you do. Hurry and get dressed. I need your help to repair the TARDIS.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

A week later Rose sank into a hot bath, grateful their adventure on Starfall was over. Pirates in real life weren’t nearly as exciting or romantic as they were in books and movies.

Once she’d washed off the grime of travel and some of the aches from fighting the robots had melted away, she dried herself off and dressed in soft flannel bottoms and a vest. A quick inquiry of the TARDIS sent her down the corridor toward the Doctor’s study.

She opened the door quietly and watched the Doctor for a moment. He was in his chair with his head tipped against the high seat back. His eyes were closed, but from the lines of tension around his mouth, she knew he was awake.

A moment later, he took in a deep breath and held out his hand. Rose padded across the carpet and slipped her hand into his, letting him pull her into his lap. The Doctor traced a finger along the bruises forming around her neck from where Salvo 7-50 had attempted to strangle her. “You were incredible, Rose.”

“Well yeah,” Rose said, grinning at him. “I’m brilliant, remember?”

The corners of his eyes crinkled up a little. “I do keep telling you that, don’t I?”

Rose saw his gaze drop to her bruises again, and some of the light went out of his smile. “Doctor, I’m fine,” she reminded him. “I’m not going anywhere, not for a good long while.”

The corners of his mouth turned up in the barest hint of a smile, and he brushed his lips against her cheek. “Can’t fool you, can I Rose Tyler?”

“Nope.” Rose bit her lip thoughtfully, considering the adventure they’d just survived. A man obsessed with bringing his dead wife back to life… “You’re not…” She toyed with the Doctor’s tie, trying to find a gentle way to ask her question. “Could you maybe relate to McCavity? I mean, aside from the jealously murderous part.”

His fingers tightened around her own. “Why would I relate to a man who went insane trying to bring back the woman he loved?”

_That’s a yes then._ “Just thought maybe… well, humans wither and die, right?” She felt the pain he tried to ignore whenever the cold fact of her eventual death was brought up, but she refused to let go of the subject. They hadn’t talked about this since their relationship had changed; maybe they needed to. “An’ the Resurrection Casket was supposed to bring the dead back to life.”

The Doctor went very still, staring straight into the fireplace. Rose took a deep breath and plunged ahead. “I mean, I know you knew there was no way it worked how they thought it did. But… did you wonder, just for a moment, if maybe there was a way to extend my life?” The muscle in his jaw flexed, and she stroked the side of his face, trying to relax him. “I was tempted, just for a moment,” she admitted in a whisper.

The Doctor froze. That… he had not expected that. “You what?”

Rose stared down at his tie. “Well… been thinking about it a lot actually. The Beast, he said I’m going to die.”

His time senses argued against the sentence, and he devoted part of his brain to analysing why while running a comforting hand up and down her arm. “Rose, it’s not real. The Beast lied.”

“It knew about everyone else,” she retorted.

“It knew about their pasts, not their futures.”

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, the Doctor knew why the thought of Rose dying in a future battle felt wrong—because it had already happened. His left hand clenched into a fist as he fought for control. He’d tried so hard to forget Rose had died, going so far as to not even tell her what had happened. But right now…

As always, Rose picked up on the shift of his emotions. She pulled back a little so she was looking him in the eye. “Doctor? What’s wrong?”

He swallowed hard and stared at the fire. He’d been carrying this for so long; he’d almost forgotten Rose didn’t know. The TARDIS hummed chidingly, and Rose narrowed her eyes at him. “What’s going on, Doctor?”

“Rose… do you remember what I said on the Game Station when you told me you’d looked into the TARDIS?”

Surprise registered on Rose’s face, and he couldn’t blame her. He’d never brought up the Game Station willingly. “You… you told me I’d looked into the Vortex.”

“And that the power was going to kill you.”

It only took a minute for Rose to catch on to what he was saying. She straightened up. “It didn’t! I’m still here, aren’t I?”

The Doctor sat up and ran a hand through his hair. “Because you, as Bad Wolf, were tied closely enough to Time to bring yourself back,” he explained, keeping his voice as even as possible. “I should have realised, but I was too caught up in my own problems, and then I was so glad to see you wake up…”

He took a deep breath.“The Vortex killed you, Rose, just like it killed me. I regenerated, and you used the power of Time to reverse your own death. So… you’ve already died in battle, so far from home. The Beast was right; he just didn’t realise it had already happened.”

Rose was silent for a long moment, trying to digest that. Dying and coming back to life wasn’t something she’d ever thought she’d do, and she looked down at her arm, half expecting it to look different, now that she knew she’d come back from the dead. She wanted to argue again, but somewhere inside her, she realised she’d known this for weeks—months even. 

_Months._ The Game Station had been almost a year ago, and they’d learned about the effects of Bad Wolf months ago. Rose stood up slowly and looked down at him. “You’ve known this how long?” she asked.

The Doctor looked away from her, staring at the fire again with pursed lips. Good. So he could feel the anger she had a tight rein on. His Adam’s apple bobbed. “Since we found out how being Bad Wolf changed you.”

“Months then.” Her calm evaporated, each word out of her mouth sharper than the one before. “You’ve known that I died and came back to life for that long, and you didn’t think it was something I should know.”

“Rose…”

“No! I don’t want to hear any of your excuses. None of them.” Paradoxically, the Doctor’s remorse only made Rose angrier. If he’d just told her this ages ago, he wouldn’t have anything to feel remorseful about.

She glared down at him, and she saw acceptance of all her anger in his eyes. Unable to stay in the same room with him any longer, she stormed out of the room and down the corridor blindly, not caring where she was going, only that he wasn’t there.

A door appeared a few paces in front of her and she darted through it, stopping when her feet touched grass. She looked up, and even though she knew it was simulated, the warm sun on her face relaxed her fractionally.

_You won’t let him find me, yeah?_ A hum of agreement reassured her, and she sat down at a wooden picnic table set with a light supper spread. Rose’s stomach growled, and she realised it had been hours since she’d eaten. She heaped her plate high with cheese and cold meats and washed her meal down with a cider.

Once she’d eaten, she stood and started wandering. There was a grove of trees about a hundred feet to her right, and as she got closer, she realised they were fruit trees. “Harbouring an orchard, are you Doctor?” she murmured, and then giggled when she saw what kind of trees they were. “Pears! Oh, you beauty,” she told the TARDIS. “He definitely won’t come searching for me here.”

A surge of rebellion washed over her, and she yanked one of the ripe fruits from the tree and took a large bite. Sweetness burst on her tongue, and she sighed with delight. The Doctor might hate pears, but they had always been one of her favourite foods.

In the back of her mind, she felt the gentle prod of the Doctor’s presence. It felt guilty, and she let him feel her anger before shutting him out as best as she could.

Rose knew the Doctor. She’d always been aware that he had secrets; with over 1000 years of memories, it would be unreasonable to expect him to share everything with her at once. But this time, he’d hidden something about her, something she had a right to know.

She blinked back a few tears and kept walking through the orchard. After walking what she thought was about a mile, the trees opened up onto a clearing with a small cottage and a stream running behind it. It was exactly the kind of house Rose had pictured when she’d read fairy tales as a little girl, and she gasped with delight.

The top half of the Dutch door was already open, and Rose reached inside to turn the knob on the lower half. Inside, it looked just like the cottage where the three good fairies had taken the Princess Aurora to raise her in the Disney version of Sleeping Beauty.

She looked around the room and followed the stairs to the upper storey. Aurora’s room was dominated by a four-poster bed, and looking at it, the exhaustion of the past few days merged with her disappointment. She flopped down on it, sighing in pleasure when she discovered it was just as comfortable as the bed in her own room. Within minutes, she was asleep.

_The Daleks disappeared, turned to dust by the power of Time unleashed in its purest form. Rose stared straight forward, her arms spread wide as she called the power back to herself. She felt the Doctor’s fear in her mind, but she couldn’t look down at him, couldn’t do anything as Time continued to burn its way through her._

_“Rose, you’ve done it, now stop. Just let it go.”_

_The TARDIS chimed in agreement, but all Rose could see was the good Bad Wolf could do. “How can I let go of this?” she asked, reaching out for something she could do to show the Doctor why she couldn’t go back to being just Rose Tyler._

_There. She found a thread of reality that made her human heart hurt, and she pulled it. “I bring life.”_

_“But this is wrong!” the Doctor protested. “You can’t control life and death.”_

_“But I can,” Rose told him simply. Didn’t he see what Bad Wolf meant? All of time existed at once for Bad Wolf, and she knew that the frail human body of Rose Tyler only had minutes left to live. Again, she found the thread of reality and tugged, making sure that it would always be the Doctor in the TARDIS with Rose Tyler—as it should be._

Rose woke up with a gasp. She hadn’t dreamt of Bad Wolf in months, not since they’d unlocked the room and her telepathy. And this dream had been different from the others. It felt more like…

She reached out to the TARDIS and the ship hummed in confirmation. It was the ship’s memories she’d seen, even though she lived the dream in her own body. _But why did you want me to see that? Just so I’d know when I apparently brought myself back from the dead?_ The TARDIS was silent, and Rose pushed the question aside for later.

After lying in bed for a few more minutes, she realised more than four hours had passed since she’d left the study. It surprised her a little that she didn’t feel any panic coming from the Doctor. After a fight like that, she hadn’t figured he would leave her alone for this long. “Maybe he’s finally learned when not to push,” she muttered as she stood up and rolled the kinks out of her shoulders.

Her shirt stuck to her back, and she knew without looking that her hair was sticking up. This wasn’t exactly how she wanted to look when she saw the Doctor again, and a gentle nudge from the TARDIS led her downstairs to a fully equipped modern loo. _I don’t think Sleeping Beauty had one of these,_ she thought as she turned the water on to the perfect temperature and climbed in.

The TARDIS had moved all her toiletries to this shower, and Rose sighed as her fingers worked the shampoo through her hair. The dream came back to her then, and she examined it closer. There was something in that scene the TARDIS wanted her to know—probably something else the Doctor hadn’t told her. “I bring life,” she murmured, feeling a hum of encouragement from the ship. Something had happened then… but what? Thanks to the loss of the memories, there was only one person who could answer the question for her.

Feeling clean and refreshed, Rose turned the shower off and reached for a towel. In addition to her toiletries, the helpful time and space ship had also brought Rose’s favourite jeans and a bright red top into the loo. Rose blow dried her hair straight and dressed before carefully applying her makeup with a more subtle hand than usual. When  she was done, she took one last look in the mirror and nodded in satisfaction. She looked like someone who should be taken seriously.

When she opened the door, she blinked for a moment and then chuckled, patting the ship on the wall. Instead of leading back to the rest of the cottage, she was in the corridor, just down from the study. Stepping into the corridor momentarily disoriented her, and it took her a moment to realise that time outside her secret room had passed more slowly than it had for her.

“Well, that explains why my mind isn’t filled with the Doctor asking where I am.”

She snorted when she pushed the door open and he was seated exactly as she’d imagined, his chin resting on his fist as he stared into the flames. “Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked without preamble.

“I thought you didn’t want excuses.”

Her back stiffened, but then she relaxed. He wasn’t mocking her; in his guilt complex way, he honestly didn’t think he deserved to explain himself.

Rose sighed and took her seat. “I don’t,” she agreed. “But I’d like an explanation.”

He huffed out a breath and turned to look at her. “My explanation is pretty pathetic, Rose,” he warned her.

“Yeah, I figured. But come on, out with it.”

“You were dead when I picked you up to carry you back into the TARDIS—well, dead or just barely come back to life. I… you know what the thought of losing you does to me.” Rose nodded; after all, it was her reminder of the wither and die comment that had sparked this conversation in the first place. “It was bad enough when that was just an eventuality I had to deal with. Knowing I’d already watched you die once…”

A shudder ran through him, and Rose tuned into their connection for the first time since he’d told her the truth. The guilt was expected, but more striking was the deep sorrow. “That’s why you kept pulling away,” she murmured. “You kept seeing it, didn’t you? Over and over.”

He nodded and buried his face in his hands. “Some days it just played on a loop in my brain. I know I should have told you. But telling you would have meant admitting it happened, and I just… I couldn’t deal with that.” His hands rubbed at his face, and when he finally looked at her, she was unsurprised to see that his eyes were damp.

Rose sighed. “Doctor, I thought you finally figured this out on Krop Tor. Telling me things, sharing them—that makes it easier to deal with them, not harder. You should have told me so I could at least be here for you and understand.” She shook her head and steeled her resolve against the sympathy that was creeping into her tone. “And even more than that, you should have told me because it was my life—well… my death, I suppose.” He winced, but she didn’t let herself soften. “Unless telling me would have put me in danger, the way I would have been if I’d remembered the rest of the Bad Wolf memories, there was no possible excuse to keep this from me.”

She waited for a moment, but to his credit, he didn’t take the out she’d offered. Not that she would have believed him since he’d already told her, but he didn’t even try.

“And I hate that I have to ask, but since you’ve kept this from me for so long, I’m suddenly wondering if I can really trust you.”

His head jerked around and his wide eyes met hers. “What? No Rose, I swear I won’t lie to you again.”

“Not lie, maybe, but keep something from me? Tell me why I feel like there’s still something about that day that you haven’t told me.” His face shuttered. “Ah, that’s what I thought. What else did I do, Doctor? I destroyed the Daleks and apparently made sure the entire experience wouldn’t kill me…”

Her forehead creased in a frown as she tried to work it out, but the harder she tried to access the memories, the fuzzier they became. “I had this dream… What happened when I said, ‘I bring life?’”

He bit his lip, then slumped back into his chair. “You saved Jack’s life,” he said. “He’d been shot by a Dalek, and you just… you had the entire power of the Vortex, all of time and space at your fingertips, and you used to it to bring your friend back to life.”

There was more though, Rose could tell from the expression on his face. “Doctor… Is Jack rebuilding the Earth, like you said?”

The Doctor winced and shook his head. Of course she wouldn’t rest until she knew the entire truth. “He’s… well, I don’t know exactly where he is right now. He might have gone on to do that, but remember, he had the Vortex Manipulator.”

Rose’s anger was a living force, pulsing across their connection. “We just left him there, without telling him and without knowing what he’d do? Doctor!”

The Doctor leapt to his feet, the need to defend himself finally pushing him into action. “Rose, no. You don’t understand. I swear, I had a reason to leave him.” He’d never forget how wrong it felt the moment Jack had come back to life.

“What, because you were jealous and couldn’t handle the thought that I might fancy him more than whoever you regenerated into?”

The remark stung, as he expected she’d intended it to, but he refused to react. Instead, he shoved his hands in his pockets and looked at her steadily. “Jack… you didn’t just save his life, Rose.”

A tremor of unease hit him, and he wondered what exactly the dream had shown her—clearly not everything. “What did I do then?”

“You made it so he can’t die. He just… he just comes back, every time.”

Rose’s eyes filled with tears and she raised a hand to her mouth. “Every time? How often has he died? How do you know that?”

“He would come back every time,” he amended. “I haven’t been keeping track; I don’t know where he is or if he even knows this about himself yet. But I felt it the moment you did it. You made him a fixed point.”

Rose wrinkled her nose. “I thought fixed points were events, not people.”

The Doctor ran a hand through his hair as he paced in front of the fireplace.

“Exactly! And that’s what’s so… so wrong about it. You made him a fact, one that the rest of the universe has to bend around. And living beings are never meant to be fixed points. Being near him… it actually hurt. Especially since I was dying at the time.”

Rose bit her lip, and he knew what she was going to ask before the words came out of her mouth.

“Can we go see him? I want… I want to let him know I didn’t just abandon him. And I suppose… apologise. Living forever, that’s gotta be hard.”

The Doctor hesitated. “The TARDIS isn’t fond of him either, now,” he warned her. “For a being who exists at all points in time and space at the same time, being near Jack is… well, it’s just not _right_.”

“But she’d do it for me, wouldn’t she?” Rose cajoled, stroking the wall.

The ship hummed in agreement, and the Doctor felt a stab of betrayal. _You were just as anxious to get away from him as I was._ He felt her telepathic shrug, which basically said, “Whatever Rose wants.”

He couldn’t argue with that sentiment. “I expect she might. I truly don’t know where he is though; I’ll have to put a search protocol in place, tell her what we’re looking for and hope she can find him someplace.”

“That’s all right,” Rose said resolutely. “As long as we try to find him, that’s what matters.”

The Doctor pursed his lips. There was something else, a connection he didn’t think Rose had made yet.

“What is it?” she asked, an edge of impatience in her voice. “Got another reason we shouldn’t see Jack?”

He swallowed his retort and let her anger roll off his back. “I just want to make sure you understand,” he said evenly. “You’re time sensitive now too, Rose. Seeing Jack again will be like… like someone rubbing sand paper against those senses. It’ll be uncomfortable; it might even hurt.”

For a moment her gaze faltered, but then she set her jaw. “He’s my friend, no matter how uncomfortable he makes me.”

The Doctor nodded slowly. “I’ll have the TARDIS start searching for him, then.”

Rose looked away, and he wondered what she was thinking. There was still a fair bit of anger in her, though it had faded a little during their conversation. “I think I’m gonna go call my friends,” she said. “I haven’t talked to Shireen or Keisha in ages.”

“Oh. Of course.”

She shook her head. “I’m still… I’m really not happy with you right now,” she said softly. “And I don’t wanna say something that I’d regret later. So I just need a few hours to myself, and then tomorrow, you can take me somewhere and we’ll get into trouble, and by the time I’ve saved your arse—again—everything will be back to normal.”


	27. Chapter 27

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The adventure at the beginning of this chapter comes from Nightmare on Black Island by Mike Tucker. Most of the dialogue up until the Doctor says he could feel what they did to Rose is taken from the book—slightly modified to fit the different situation.

The Doctor stared at the fire for a few minutes after Rose left, until the TARDIS zapped him with a flare of annoyance. Clearly, the ship was tired of his self-pity, especially given that the situation was of his own making. If he’d told Rose about her… well, regeneration for lack of a better word, none of this would have happened. Keeping things from people was a long-held habit of his, but it was one he was realising he’d have to break with Rose.

He sighed and got to his feet. “I guess we should get that scan going then, shouldn’t we?” he asked his ship as he walked toward the console room.

It didn’t take long to set the parameters of the scan. Jack’s temporal signal was completely unique in the universe; the TARDIS should be able to lock onto him with relative ease.

“If I try to do some maintenance, are you going to shock me?” Her hum remained steady, and taking that for encouragement, he stripped off his jacket and tie and rolled up his shirt sleeves before opening up the grating in between the jump seat and the console and dropping down beneath.

He tried to ignore Rose, but the TARDIS seemed to be intent on not letting him. He felt her emotions shift as she presumably talked to her friends, probably finding some way to talk to them about what he’d done without giving away the details.

“I know I made a mistake,” he muttered as he tightened a bolt. “You don’t need to keep reminding me.” The quick electric shock he got in reply didn’t even surprise him.

Rose drifted to sleep just as the Doctor lifted himself back up onto the grating. He stretched his back, groaning in relief when his spine popped back into place. His biology was superior, but even Time Lords weren’t meant to stand hunched over for three hours.

The Doctor’s ears perked up when the TARDIS’ hum changed pitch unexpectedly. At the same time, he felt Rose slip into a dream, much earlier in her sleep cycle than normal. He frowned and looked at the flashing light on the console.

“Well, that’s not right. Not right at all.”

He peered down at the monitor giving him a systems read-out on the ship, then glanced back at the flashing bit. “What are you flashing for? You’re not meant to flash. If I’d wanted you to flash, I’d have put you somewhere more obvious, more flashy.”

Whatever was going on with the TARDIS was forgotten when Rose’s distress was broadcast to him. The part of his brain that was connected to both ship and woman vaguely realised the emotions coming from them were identical. The rest of his brain was focused on getting to Rose and waking her up from her nightmare.

He hesitated at her door, remembering her desire to be alone. When it slid open on its own, he knew he had permission to enter.

Rose was muttering under her breath about a monster and a boy when he sat down next to her. The Doctor smoothed out the furrow in her brow, and her eyes flew open at the first touch.

At the same moment, the TARDIS calmed too. If he’d had any doubt the two were connected, it was gone now. “Are you all right?” he asked Rose, who was propping herself up to sit against her headboard.

“Yeah, a dream, that’s all. A nightmare.” She pushed her hair out of her face. “What are you doing here?”

The TARDIS brought the lights in her room up to half power. “It seems you’re not the only one having nightmares.” Rose’s eyes widened, and she raised a hand to brush it against the wall. “Can you remember what your dream was about?”

She wrinkled her nose in thought. “Things. Creatures…”

He latched onto her uncertainty. “Creatures?”

Rose closed her eyes for a minute, and the Doctor let her think. “Yeah,” she said quietly. “I was at the coast. Not a beach with sand, but lots of rocks… and a lighthouse. There was a storm. And a kid, a little boy who kept laughing. Then this thing came out of the sea, a big sea monster sort of thing, four arms, breathing fire. It killed a man, a fisherman, and it was starting to turn on me.”

They both felt the TARDIS hum in agreement. “What’s she mean, Doctor?”

“I _think_ she means you had the same dream. We picked up some very odd readings while you were asleep, and maybe if we trace them back to the source…”

He stood up and held his hand out. “Are you ready for that adventure, Rose Tyler?”

She grinned and let him pull her out of bed. “Always, Doctor.”

In the console room, they looked at the monitor together. “Oh, my God!” Rose exclaimed, looking at the long stretch of rocky coast. “That’s the place! That’s where I was in my dream.”

“Then I think you need to get some clothes on so we can properly meet the creature from your nightmare,” the Doctor said. “Because if the place is real, the monster might be real too.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

If the Doctor had known what awaited them in Wales, he would have kept Rose as far away from Black Island as he could. Aliens using psychomorphic generators to harness the power of a child’s nightmare, thereby making the nightmare monsters real? Despicable, but easy to sort out.

But Rose’s panic and then discomfort when the aliens had hooked their machines up to her and poked around in her mind… _that_ he could have happily lived the rest of his very long life without feeling. He didn’t know what they’d been hoping to find, and it didn’t matter. The moment he felt them violate her mind was the moment they lost their last chance to turn back.

The intrusion into her mind had been over before he got to her, and together with the help of a young girl she’d befriended, the Doctor and Rose stopped the Cynrog and destroyed the monster they’d been intent on setting loose on Earth.

After it was all said and done, and he and Rose were back on the TARDIS where they belonged, he wrapped an arm around her while they watched the Cynrog ship make its way out of Earth orbit, flying off into space.

“You sent them back to their war then?” Rose asked.

“Yeah, but by the scenic route.”

She raised an eyebrow. “How scenic?”

The Doctor smiled grimly, remembering the exact flight plan and in-flight entertainment he’d arranged for the soldiers. “Oh… about… forty or fifty parsecs out of their way. Should take them a couple of years at that speed.”

Rose’s jaw dropped. “A couple of years.” She looked out at the rapidly disappearing ship, then back at him. “Can they survive that long in that sardine tin?”

“Course they can!” he told her, rocking back on his heels. “Lovely little stasis capsules in that thing. They’ll sleep all the way home! Mind you…”

“What?” Rose asked when he didn’t finish the sentence.

He stared out into space, struggling to bring his anger under control. “They might have a few bad dreams on the way.”

The Doctor looked down at Rose. “I could feel what they did to you,” he said quietly. “I never, ever wanted you to know what that felt like.”

She reached up to cup his jaw, and he turned his head to place a kiss to her palm. “I made them work for it though,” she told him. “My telepathic barriers kept them out for a while—I could hear them getting frustrated.”

He smiled proudly. “Of course they were. Because they expected just an ordinary human, not an extraordinary Rose Tyler.”

Rose’s laugh turned into a jaw-cracking yawn. “Yeah, well this extraordinary Rose Tyler hasn’t slept properly in three days. I think it’s time I went to bed.”

The Doctor wrapped an arm around her waist, encouraging her to lean against him as they walked down the corridor. Another memory from recent events came to the front of his mind—the way he’d used the psychic power of the machine to have a full telepathic conversation with Rose, from over a mile away. “There’s one more thing,” he told her.

“Wha’s that?”

“I wanted… that was not what I’d planned for our first long distance telepathic conversation.” The Doctor frowned. He’d had _plans_ for what he would say to Rose, if she were ever willing to create the kind of bond necessary to talk over long distances. Plans the Cynrog had disrupted by forcing him use that very intimate form of communication for something as pragmatic as saving the Earth. At least they hadn’t forced him to form a bond with Rose without her prior agreement.

They’d reached Rose’s room, and she leaned back against her door. “S’that something we could do?” she asked, curiosity warring with sleep in her eyes.

The Doctor brushed her temple with his fingers, relishing the faintest spark of connection. “Time Lord courtship rituals, remember?”

Rose smiled and took hold of his tie, using it to pull him closer. “Love you,” she whispered against his lips.

More important to the Doctor than the physical caress was the forgiveness he felt from Rose. They hadn’t had time to talk since she learned about Jack and the Game Station, and knowing she wasn’t angry anymore soothed the ache in his hearts. His hands landed on her waist and he pulled her closer as he returned the kiss, letting his lips and body offer both apology and thanks.

Rose’s hand moved up to play with the hair at the nape of his neck. When she sucked his bottom lip between her own, the Doctor eased out of the kiss and rested his forehead against hers. “You were going to bed,” he reminded her.

She wrinkled her nose, but her protest was interrupted by another huge yawn. “Right, bed,” she agreed.

After her door shut behind her, the Doctor’s own weariness finally kicked in and he shuffled down the corridor toward his own room. He’d barely slept since the night after their first date, before their encounter with the pirates. That put it at over a week, and while he didn’t need as much sleep as humans did, he did need some.

He loosened the knot of his tie as he walked into his room and tossed the length of silk onto the bureau. The jacket slipped down his arms with a simple shrug of the shoulders. The Doctor caught it in one hand and laid it over the back of his chair before moving onto the buttons on his shirt. That he allowed to fall on the floor unchecked, too tired to care if it was wrinkled in the morning.

He toed off his Chucks and kicked them into the corner so he wouldn’t trip over them in the morning, then fumbled with the button on his trousers for a moment before he finally worked it free. Too tired to do anything more, he climbed into bed in just his pants and was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

Even asleep, the Doctor was aware of Rose’s telepathic presence. With both of them unconscious, their empathic connection was open as wide as it would go, the unconscious mind being less able to regulate emotion than the conscious mind.

When the first flutter of her nightmare brushed across his mind, he reached for her in his sleep and tried to soothe her. But her panic ramped out of control too quickly, and the sensation of her distress propelled him from sleep.

As soon as his eyes were open, the Doctor pulled on a pair of pyjama bottoms and hurried to her room. The covers were twisted around her waist, and he carefully untangled them. “Made my choice a long time ago,” she mumbled, shaking her head against her pillow. “Never gonna leave you.”

The determination in her voice made his hearts clench. _What did I do to deserve this kind of loyalty?_ He tried to pull her close to ease the nightmare, but every time he reached for her arm, she jerked away and her mutterings became more frantic.

“Hafta hold on. Won’t let go.”

The Doctor sat down next to her, a hand on her shoulder. “Wake up, Rose.”

Her features tightened and tears seeped out of her closed eyes. “Take me back!” she moaned, then repeated it again and again as her fists beat against his chest.

Finally, after she nearly elbowed him in the gut, he grabbed both arms and pinned her to the bed. “Rose, wake up,” he said firmly, hoping the words and the solid weight of his body would bring her out of her night terror.

Her eyes flew open, and he wiped her tears away. “Doctor!” she gasped, and he rolled them over so she could cuddle into his side.

Once her trembling had eased, he softly asked, “Was it like the ones before?” She shook her head, and he relaxed infinitesimally. He’d thought he’d destroyed the Cynrog’s machine, but when he’d felt the first tremors of her nightmare, he’d wondered if he’d missed something.

“Want to tell me about it?”

She buried her face in his chest. “We were separated, and I couldn’t get back to you,” she whispered.

The uneasy conviction that something was trying to split them up pressed onto the Doctor again, just as it had on Krop Tor. “Well, I’m here now,” he told her, keeping his voice calm and pushing his own fear as far back into the corner of his mind as possible.

“How did you know I needed you?”

He trailed a hand down her back. “Your nightmare woke me up.”

Rose groaned and projected embarrassment over their connection. “Sorry.”

He chuckled softly. “Don’t be. Love means being here for you when you need me.” Rose sighed and traced patterns on his chest with her finger.  “Go back to sleep, Rose.”

“Can’t. Not after that, not right away.” He felt her considering something and wondered what she was going to say next. “Maybe you could tell me a little bit about those Time Lord courtship rituals?” she asked and brushed her fingers over his temple.

The Doctor bit back a groan and grabbed her hand and pulled it back down to his chest. Each time Rose’s mind touched his, it was harder for him to control the instinct to make the connection less practical and more pleasurable.

She tilted her head back and looked up at him with wide eyes. “Did I do something wrong?”

“Oh no,” he told her, grinning wryly. “But this can be your first lesson. Telepathy between two people who love each other can be… intimate. And initiating contact while we’re already in bed…”

“Time Lord foreplay?” Rose guessed, and he chuckled.

“Essentially.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” she said flirtatiously.

The Doctor was grateful that, though he couldn’t easily control his reactions to Rose’s telepathic caress, he could control his biological responses to her playful seduction. Otherwise, Rose would have no doubt of exactly how this conversation was affecting him. He saw her gaze flit down to his lips and back up, and some of that control slipped. He shifted slightly away from her; he didn’t want their first time making love to be something that just happened.

“Rose…”

“For later!”

Their laughter finally dispelled the oppressive fear that lingered after her nightmare. Rose yawned and relaxed into him, and some of his tension eased when she wasn’t looking at him with her bedroom eyes.

He pressed another kiss to the crown of her head. “Think you can sleep now?”

“Mmm, in a minute,” she said. “First I wanna know more.”

At this point, her sleepy persistence was more endearing than arousing. “This isn’t really a conversation to have when you’re falling asleep, love. If you honestly want to know, ask me in the morning and I promise I’ll tell you all about it.”

“I will.” Her breathing slowed, and right before she slipped back into dreamland, he heard her whisper, “I like it when you call me love.”

 


	28. Chapter 28

The Doctor was all elbows and knees the next morning, spilling the milk and dropping a plate of toast on the floor. He’d not planned to tell Rose anything about what she referred to as “Time Lord courtship rituals” until much, much later, and he’d stayed awake for a good part of the night laying out exactly what to tell her.

But when she ate her breakfast without a mention of it and then went back to her room to change as if they’d never talked about it… Well, some of the nervous excitement in his stomach deflated. By the time she reappeared in the control room, dressed in jeans and a form fitting long-sleeved top, he’d convinced himself it was only the emotions evoked by her nightmares that had made her curious. Maybe she’d even forgotten, since she’d been half asleep at the time.

He tried very hard to persuade himself the hollow feeling in his stomach wasn’t disappointment.

Rose cleared her throat, and he glanced up at her, sitting on the jump seat. “Well?”

“Well what?”

“I’m not falling asleep, Doctor. Tell me more.”

His hand slipped off the knob it had been resting on and nearly hit a button that would have punched a hole roughly the size of Belgium in the fabric of reality. “You really want to know?” he asked, not bothering to hide the way his voice squeaked.

Her lips quirked up into a smirk that did nothing to calm his nerves. “Said I did, didn’t I?”

“Well yes, but I wasn’t sure… and then you didn’t… and I wasn’t even sure you remembered.”

Rose rolled her eyes. “So this is me, telling you: I remember, and I still wanna know. Just like I said.” He stared at her over the console, and something in her eyes softened. “Doctor, I love you. Is it really so hard to believe I’d be interested in something important to you?” She patted the seat next to her. “Come sit down and tell me about it.”

Helpless to deny her, he sat down and let her curl into him. “Doctor? Your hearts are beating really fast.”

He snorted. “This isn’t something I talk about every day, Rose.”

“I’d hope not.”

He rubbed his hands on his trousers, a nervous habit he’d picked up from humans even though his palms didn’t sweat. “So, you already know that Time Lord courtship rituals, as you call them, are almost entirely telepathic. Not surprising I suppose for a telepathic race, though the Dalavathi tie their legs together so they can only walk together, and really that’s pretty romantic when you think about it.”

“Maybe, but I’m not in love with a Dalavathi.”

Her repeated declaration of love bolstered his courage. “Right. Okay, so Time Lords. Well, like human mating, there’s two parts: the intimate side I alluded to last night, and then an actual bonding of the minds that’s more…” _More like marriage,_ his brain supplied, but he swallowed the words and said, “More of a commitment.”

“So telepathic contact can feel good?”

Those same instincts the Doctor had fought against the previous night rose up again, and he had to clench his hand into a fist to keep himself from showing her exactly how good it could feel. “Pleasurable even. There are ways…” He cleared his throat. “And imagine feeling exactly how what you’re doing is making your partner feel.”

Rose bit her lip. “But… we already… I mean, I’ve been able to feel when you were, um, turned on ever since we got this empathic connection. So how’s this any different?”

The Doctor coughed. “It’s—well, that’s only… picking up on desire is only the first step,” he stammered. “Knowing when you’re… aroused, well sensing it telepathically isn’t much different from observing your blown pupils or flushed cheeks.”

“So… um, telepathic intimacy would be… more?”

“Much more,” the Doctor confirmed. “It’s the difference between knowing your partner is aroused and actively doing something to arouse them.” He dropped his hand and traced a light pattern on the inside of her knee. “It’s possible to telepathically stimulate the pleasure centres of the brain. Depending on the level of contact, that could feel like anything from a nice snog to full intercourse.”

Rose’s breathing stuttered and the Doctor clenched his eyes against the rising force of her desire. _Blimey_. He’d known it would be impossible to talk about telepathic intimacy without becoming aroused himself, but he hadn’t even thought…

He pulled his hand back and shifted a few inches away from her, and she seemed to understand his need for space. “Actually, Gallifreyans and Time Lords were, as a rule, asexual. Not much in the way of sexual attraction to one another, and the sex act was generally seen as far too messy and awkward and most definitely beneath Time Lord dignity. We reproduced with machines called looms and, for those who wanted intimate forms of pleasure, there was the telepathic connection, which was, er, more than adequate.”

Rose fixed her gaze on their joined hands, and he wondered what she was thinking. “Does that mean you can’t…”

Her voice trailed off and it took him a moment to follow her train of thought. _Mean I can’t…_ “Oh! Oh yes, I definitely can.” The Doctor caught himself before he launched into a scientific explanation of the functionality of vestigial penises—even he was aware that information didn’t belong in this conversation.

“Good,” she muttered.

He wasn’t sure he was supposed to hear that, so he swallowed hard and moved on. “So that’s the first level of… courtship, though that word implies more of a relationship than it necessarily was. Possible between any two telepaths, providing the minds are compatible enough.”

“And ours…”

“Very compatible.” He couldn’t help the huskiness in his voice, and the way she inched closer told him she’d noticed.

“But there’s more, yeah?” she asked softly. “Seems like there has to be more.”

The Doctor took a deep breath and pulled at the strands of control that desperately wanted to be unfettered. There was more, so much more, and he needed Rose to understand all of it before they took even the first step into telepathic intimacy.

“I told you last week that actual relationships were based on mental compatibility. You already know about regeneration; imagine the difficulties in maintaining a relationship with someone through different incarnations, as your mind shifts subtly.”

Rose turned to look up at him, and the frown on her face worried him. “So if you regenerate again, you might not… want to be with me anymore?”

“Oh! Oh, no.” He brushed the hair out of her face and cupped her cheek tenderly. “Remember, this is the Time Lords we’re talking about. Relationships were based on compatibility and political expedience, not love. Love… love always carries through from regeneration to regeneration. And besides, that’s a test we’ve already passed.”

She looked at him blankly, and he realised that somehow, she didn’t know how long he had been in love with her. “I loved you long before I regenerated, Rose.”

Her cheeks turned pink. “You did?”

“Rose, I can hardly remember a time I didn’t love you.” He floundered for a way to explain it, and then remembered a line from literature that described it perfectly. “I was in the middle before I knew I had begun.”  

Rose hid her face against his arm, but he could see the way her mouth stretched into a smile. “I loved you back then too,” she whispered.

He had to kiss her then, he couldn’t resist. He placed a finger under her chin and tipped her head back, then dropped a gentle, loving kiss on her slightly parted lips. The love he saw shining in her eyes when he pulled back made him forget what they’d been talking about.

“Where was I?”

“Explaining why bonding was so important to your people.”

“Ah, yes. Well, it’s obvious, isn’t it? Without love holding you together, a bond was the only way to ensure a stable relationship. At the beginning of the union, the couple would form a telepathic bond that would ensure they always had a place together, no matter what else changed.”

“What did the bond entail?”

The Doctor’s first instinct was to put his hand on her temple and show her, to explain the difference between what they had right now with what a bond would mean by example. He clenched his jaw and let the temptation pass; there was no way he could go into her mind right now without it becoming more than a simple conversation.

“Doctor?”

Some of his control regained, he looked down at Rose. “The first thing you need to know is that it would be very different from what we’ve shared so far. If we were communicating telepathically right now, we could still have barriers up to keep the other from seeing certain things.”

“Right, imagine a locked door, et cetera,” Rose said. “So a bond would be different?”

“If we weren’t actually touching, it would be possible to still shield thoughts. But if we were touching, even just holding hands, it would be almost impossible to keep a secret. If there was a surprise you wanted to keep, you could communicate that and I would try not to peek, but mostly… we would be open books to each other. It was that intimate level of familiarity that ensured a regeneration wouldn’t lead to a separation.”

She hadn’t flinched away from him yet, so he continued. “Bond mates could even communicate over a distance.”

“That was dead useful yesterday,” Rose commented. “You using that alien psychic machine to tell me how to stop the creatures.”

The Doctor swallowed. “Yeah. But it’s more than practical. Imagine being miles away from your lover, but communicating with them as if they were in the room with you—all in the privacy of your own mind.”

“I dunno, Doctor. That sounds…” She bit her lip. “Honestly, that sounds more intimate than sex, or even mental sex. That’s sharing everything you are with the other person.”

“Which is why matches were very carefully drawn up between two people,” he agreed. “I sneer a little bit at their pragmatism, but really, it makes sense.”

“Because if the whole point of bonding is to make sure the relationship holds through regenerations, then it really is till death do you part,” she summed up. “I mean, it couldn’t be undone, right?”

The Doctor rubbed at the back of his neck. “A bond was permanent, until one party went through their final regeneration. And even then, losing a bond-mate was… painful.”

Rose’s face fell, and he felt her withdraw a little bit. “Rose? I’m sorry, I know it’s a lot to take in. I should have told you in chunks, but I just… you know how I am when I get started, I just talk and talk until someone tells me to shut up and please tell me to shut up now, Rose.”

“No, it wasn’t too much. I asked to know. I just thought…”

She felt rejected, but that couldn’t be right, not when he’d just opened up to her more than he ever had before. “What did you think? Because I’m telling you honestly Rose, I am at an utter loss right now.”

She tugged on the sleeve of her top, pulling it down over her thumb. “Well, that’s why you stopped me last night, wasn’t it? Not because we’re taking it slow or anything, but because bonding is… unbreakable.”

“Well, I’m not opposed to the idea of going slowly, but… yes.” Rose tried to get up, but he kept a tight hold around her waist. “Hold on, Rose. I think—no, I’m positive we’re having some kind of miscommunication here. I’m sure it’s entirely my fault, but I don’t know where I’ve gone wrong in explaining.”

“You haven’t, Doctor.” Rose shook her head and her hair fell over her face. The Doctor wanted to brush it back so he could see her, but she seemed so unusually timid that he knew she needed the protection. “I just thought… I thought me and you… but I guess my forever isn’t really long enough to be worth a bond.”

The Doctor gaped at her, hardly able to believe what she seemed to be saying. Still, the hurt he felt from her couldn’t be mistaken. “You think I don’t want to bond with you.”

She sniffed and nodded. “I know you love me,” she said in a rush. “An’ I know that you’re never gonna make me leave again, and that you won’t leave me. I trust you, I do.”

“Rose Tyler, I have underestimated you so many times, but this might be…” The Doctor swallowed hard. “You misunderstood me, love, or maybe I wasn’t clear because I didn’t want to pressure you. I didn’t know if you would want a bond with me.”

Rose pushed her hair back and stared at the Doctor, her mouth hanging open a little. “You didn’t know if I would want to bond with you?”

The Doctor looked away, feeling exposed with one of his biggest insecurities finally revealed. “I’ve only let you see the nicer parts of my mind, Rose. I’ve lived a long time, and I’ve done things I’m not proud of. I’ve killed. I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t want to live with that inside your head.”

“Yeah, you did underestimate me.” Rose tugged on his hand and he turned to face her again. “Doctor, I know those things about you. I might not know the details, but I already know them, and I love you anyway.”

She shook her head suddenly. “No, you know what? That’s not even right. I love everything you are, the light and the dark. Some of those things you did because you had no choice. An’ some of them… some of them you learned from, and they shaped you into the man you are right now.” She took a deep breath. “So yeah, I’d love to live with that inside my head. It’s you, and I love you—my Doctor.”

The Doctor had to swallow hard to get the lump out of his throat. Rose’s words made him want to ask… but things were moving much faster than he’d expected, and he didn’t want to scare her off. But Rose picked up on his nervousness—of course she did—and squeezed his hand reassuringly.

That gave him the courage to voice the question in his mind. “Would you—” He licked his dry lips. “Would you be willing to take the first step, right now?”

Eager excitement rolled off Rose, but her voice was calm. “What’s the first step?”

“We’d form a provisional bond. Enough to send images, and to talk if we’re near each other, but even while we were touching, it would be possible to keep thoughts behind locked doors.”

Rose tilted her head. “Sorta like a trial period?”

The Doctor stared at the time rotor, not wanting to see the rejection on her face if she said no. “Exactly. Provisional bonds could be broken, unlike a full bond.”

She didn’t feel uneasy or repulsed by the idea. In fact, if anything, there was anticipation coming from her end of their connection. “So this would be like gettin’ engaged, and a full bond is marriage.”

The Doctor’s hearts were racing. “Yes. It... it was actually called a marriage bond,” he said simply, his gob failing him for once.

He expected Rose to hesitate, or back away. Their relationship—well, open and acknowledged—was only a few weeks old, and in human terms, he’d just asked her to marry him.

Rose put her hand on his shoulder. “Doctor, look at me.” The Doctor turned slowly, and when he looked at Rose, her eyes were shining. “We could do this provisional bond right now?”

He searched her face, hardly daring to believe she was saying yes. “Only—only if you want.”

“I want,” she said, and he felt the strength of her promise in those words.

The Doctor leapt out of the seat, nearly causing Rose to tumble over. “What’re you doing?” Rose asked him, watching him dash around the console with a joyful expression on his face.

“Taking you somewhere special. I thought we deserved a proper setting for this,” he told her, and sent the TARDIS whirling through the Vortex to their next destination. “You might want to grab a jacket; this planet tends to be a bit chilly.”

Rose shook her head as she walked back to her room. Sometimes the Doctor’s mood swings were hard to follow, but at least this time, she knew what the reason was.

The skin on her temple tingled as she remembered how it felt to have him inside her head. What would it be like to always have him there? She could always feel him, but to actually have him inside her… She flushed at her accidental innuendo and forced herself to move on.

When she reached into her closet, her fingers brushed against soft leather. Pulling the hanger out, she found a brand new jacket she knew would fit her perfectly. She slipped it on and then stroked the TARDIS lightly. _Thank you, Dear._

“Have I mentioned,” the Doctor said when she returned to the console room, “how much I love that you love the TARDIS?”

“Course I love her,” Rose said. “She’s brilliant.”

The Doctor grinned and held out a hand. “Come on then. We’re here.”

“We’ve landed? But I didn’t feel a thing.”

He sniffed and looked down his nose at her. “Because I’m feeling magnanimous, I’m going to ignore that implied slight against my driving.”

Rose’s teasing retort was forgotten when he opened the doors. She gasped in awe as she stepped out of the TARDIS into a deep canyon filled with amazing rock formations. The planet’s sun had just risen, and the pinkish light of dawn lit the tops of the canyon walls. Above them, two giant rays soared through the sky.

“S’beautiful, Doctor,” she breathed. “What is it?”

“This is Makuyu. And that up there,” he pointed to a streak in the sky glowing blue and pink, “is the Medusa Cascade, where there used to be a rift in time and space.”

“Like in Cardiff?”

“Well yes, but this is really much prettier.”

She felt he was holding something back, but after all the revelations of the day, she didn’t push him on this point. The Medusa Cascade was special to him in some way, and he’d chosen to bring her here. That was all she needed to know. “You said it used to be a rift. What is it now?” she asked, watching as the band of colour faded in the brightening sky.

“Now it’s a causal nexus. Out there, the fabric of time was once rent in a way that should have caused a universe destroying paradox, but instead, it became relatively stable. It’s still a place where the timelines are in flux, though. In a manner of speaking, from here, anything could happen.”

When they couldn’t see it anymore, the Doctor tugged Rose closer, wrapping an arm around her waist. “Can you see them?” he whispered.

Rose closed her eyes and tried to pay attention to the gold strands she’d started to see recently. She saw the ones belonging to herself and the Doctor, but she instinctively ignored those, instead following a different one at random. At each point along the timeline, there were four or five variations of events, some drastically different and some just mild alterations.

She drew in a sharp breath as time flowed around her. “Yeah. Yeah, I see it.”

“It’s a place of infinite possibility, which isn’t how I usually see time. But here, anything can happen—even things I thought were impossible.”

Rose finally started to catch on to his purpose. “I like being in a universe of the possible, instead of the impossible.”

The hand on her waist flexed a little, then relaxed. “I’ve started to believe in the impossible since you entered my life, Rose. That starts and ends with believing you could actually want a damaged man like me.”

Rose felt the uncertainty in the words that he was trying to hide, and she knew she’d have to take the next step. “So how exactly do we create this provisional bond?” she asked. “You’ve… well, all you’ve told me is what it does, not how it happens.”

The Doctor’s gratitude rolled over her. “Most of the steps won’t apply to us,” he said. “Our families don’t need to consult with the Lord Cardinals of our Chapters, and there’s no concern over how advantageous a union this would be politically.”

“I know I’ve said it before, but blimey, your people sure knew how to suck the fun out of everything.”

The Doctor laughed. “Oh yes.”

Rose turned so she was facing the Doctor, taking both of his hands in hers. “So what’s the first step that we would actually do?”

“After the families had proposed a match and the Lord Cardinals approved it, there would be a preliminary ceremony with the couple.”

“Oh, the couple actually gets to be involved?” Rose asked in mock surprise.

“Since a marriage bond is unbreakable, as you pointed out, the couple would make a verbal commitment to that in front of witnesses before they formed the provisional bond. Then they would share a house for a period of time, to confirm their compatibility.”

Rose grinned at him. “We’ve already done that part.”

The Doctor rocked back on his heels, a glint in his eyes. “Yep! Successful cohabitation—check!”

“And there aren’t any witnesses here.”

The rays soared through the sky behind the Doctor. “None that would understand what we were talking about, at least.”

The humour eased their nerves, and Rose squeezed his hands. “Then all that’s left is the bond, yeah? How does this work?”

The Doctor stared at a spot over her shoulder. “We’ll form a telepathic connection, like we have the few times we’ve talked. Then I’ll ask you to bond with me. If you accept, the provisional bond is formed.”

Rose frowned. “Not if, Doctor,” she said firmly. “When. When I accept.”

His eyes met hers, and she could see the fear and wonder he was projecting over their empathic connection. “May I?” he asked, lifting his hand to her temple. She nodded. “You too, Rose,” he added, bringing her left hand up to his right temple.

They both sighed when the contact was formed, and Rose felt a sense of relief from the Doctor, like he’d been aching for this. _You’ve been lonely for too long, Doctor,_ she told him.

_I’d never been alone in my head before, not really. It was the worst part of the War._ He gently redirected their conversation. _But we aren’t here to talk about that._

The Doctor in Rose’s mind closed his eyes, and a moment later, they were standing in the canyon again. _How’d you do that?_

_Inside your mind, you can be anywhere you want to be._ He shifted so they were standing side by side holding hands again, clasped palm to palm with their fingers laced together. The Medusa Cascade was invisible, but Rose could still see the possibilities swirling in the air.

His fingers tightened in hers, and she glanced up at his face. _How long are you going to stay with me?_

Rose’s heart sped up. This was him, asking. She felt her own timeline and saw only one path forward. There was no universe in which she wouldn’t want the Doctor. _Forever,_ she told him, never more sure of anything in her life.

The word carried the weight of authority, and they both shivered as it settled into their timelines, forming the provisional bond that would begin to tie their minds together. By mutual consent, they removed their fingers from each other’s temples, leaving the telepathic connection behind.

Rose blinked up at the Doctor. His telepathic signature, that  presence she was always aware of, was suddenly much more vivid than it had been before. “S’like… I can almost see you in my mind’s eye,” she said.

He breathed out roughly. “Yeah.” The hand that had been on her temple ran through her hair slowly, letting the strands fall back one by one. “May I?” the Doctor asked for the second time that day.

“Always,” Rose whispered as his hands came up to frame her face.

The kiss was tender and reverent, mouths moving slowly in an effort to express the emotion welling up inside them both. Rose could now feel the Doctor’s attraction not only over their empathic link, but also over the bond. Instinctively, she reached for it, stroking along the bond and sending the pleasure back to him.

The Doctor moaned low in his throat, and the sound spurred on Rose’s own arousal. She nipped at his lip and he opened willingly. His tongue stroked against hers and then pushed into her mouth as he took command of the kiss, his hands pressing against her back to hold her close. Rose gladly relinquished control, clutching the lapels of his jacket and losing herself in the sea of sensation he was creating.

And then she felt the Doctor return her telepathic caress. Rose tore her lips from the Doctor’s to cry out at the pleasure singing through her mind. She rocked against him, seeking the friction she needed.

Rose reached her breaking point when he ground against her, leaving no doubt that he was as affected as she was. She grabbed onto the bond and sent him detailed images of exactly what she wanted to do to him. There were a dozen possibilities, all of them involving significantly less clothing than they were wearing right now.

The Doctor moaned her name, but then, to Rose’s surprise, he put his hands on her shoulders and pushed her away until there was a foot between them. “Doctor?”

His eyes were clenched shut, and he was breathing heavily. “Can we… this is… I just…” He paused and drew in a shuddering breath.

“Too much at once?” Rose was grateful for the gift of their empathic connection; she might not have been quite as understanding of his sudden downshift if she hadn’t known exactly how he felt.

He nodded twice, and finally opened his eyes. “Can we take a few weeks to get used to the bond before we go any farther physically?”

“‘Course we can,” Rose said, the words coming easily even though she wanted to protest. The Doctor gave her a half smile, and from the gratitude he projected toward her, she knew he knew what she wasn’t saying.

“Back to the TARDIS?” he suggested, holding out a hand.

Rose slipped her fingers through his. “And all of time and space,” she agreed.

 


	29. Chapter 29

Chapter 29

“What are you up to?” Rose asked, taking in the Doctor reclining comfortably in the jump seat.

He opened his arms in invitation, and she sat down on his lap, enjoying his slight surprise. It had been three weeks since they’d formed their provisional bond, and over the last few days he’d taken to teasing her with telepathic caresses as she drifted to sleep. She planned to give him a taste of his own medicine.

The kiss started soft, then Rose traced the seam of his lips with her tongue while massaging the spot behind his ear that always turned him on. The Doctor groaned and opened his mouth, and that was when Rose pulled back enough to say, “Doctor? Did you have a plan?”

He blinked a few times and then said, “Just thinking about where to go next.”

Rose leaned against his chest and played with his tie. “Come to any conclusions?” she asked as she slowly pulled on the small end, untying it and then taking the tie off altogether. She felt him swallow and smiled.

“Thought maybe the Olympics,” he answered, his voice jumping a bit when she undid the top couple of buttons on his shirt.

She pressed her lips against his Adam’s apple and sucked lightly, closing her eyes against the vibrations of his groan. “Rose,” he murmured, and she felt his fingers running through her hair.

Her own control was slipping, so she took her teasing to the next level, moving her lips down to nip at his clavicle. The Doctor tipped his head back to give her better access, and his hand dropped to his side. “The London Olympics?” she asked.

“Hmmm?”

“Which Olympics?”

“Oh. Right. Yeah, London.”

She jumped to her feet. “That sounds fantastic!” she said, barely holding in a laugh at his dazed look. “Can we go now?”

“Now? But…”

She smiled cheekily. “You’ve been teasing me every night, Doctor, using our bond to wind me up, and then saying goodnight. This was just a taste of your own medicine.”

He sighed and moved to the console. “Right then, if my lady wants to see the Olympics, we’ll see the Olympics.”

Rose held onto the jump seat as the TARDIS landed. The Doctor opened the door and looked out. “Ah,” he said, and over his shoulder she spotted something that looked like a cargo container or skip. She bit her lip to keep from laughing as he returned to the console and shifted their position.

“No laughing,” he said, pointing a finger at her. “We’re lucky we got to London, what with you distracting me.”

“Are you sure we are in London?” she asked, pressing her lips together to hide a smile.

He pushed the door open with a flourish. “Behold, London!”

She stepped into the sunshine and, with the confidence of someone born and raised in the city, knew they were in London. While the Doctor closed the doors, she wandered over to the brick wall next to the cargo containers. “Shane Ward’s doing a greatest hits tour,” she said. “Looks like you got us to London **and** the right time.”

He rolled his eyes and held out a hand, which she took automatically. Out on the street they saw a banner for the London Olympics. “What’d I tell you? Thirtieth Olympiad!”

She bumped into him. “Guess I’ll have to do a better job distracting you next time then, Doctor.”

The promise in his eyes when he looked over at her sent a shiver down her spine. _Or I could distract you,_ he suggested, and there was a level of intent behind the words that nearly had Rose dragging him back to the TARDIS.

“So, Olympics?” she said, changing the subject even though she knew he could tell exactly how he affected her.

He smirked at her, then launched into an explanation. “Only seems like yesterday a few naked Greek blokes were tossing a discus about, wrestling each other in the sand while crowds stood around baying. No, wait a minute, that was Club Med.”

Rose rolled her eyes at the joke, and he kept rambling. “Just in time for the opening doo dah, ceremony, tonight, I thought you’d like that.”

Over the Doctor’s shoulder, Rose spotted a man taping a flyer to a lamp post. The worried look on his face tugged at her heart, and she left the Doctor, who was still rambling, to take a look at the flyer. Maybe it wasn’t anything serious, maybe it was just a missing pet…

_Or maybe it was a missing child._ She stared at the flyer in horror for a moment, and then realised there were two. The Doctor picked up on her upset emotions and wandered over, still talking about John Mark and tea. “Doctor!”

“Did you ever have one of those little cakes with the crunchy ball bearings on top?” he asked as he reached her side.

Rose shivered and pulled her jacket tighter around herself. It was probably just her fear, but the temperature seemed lower here than it had been earlier.

The Doctor’s animated energy switched to hyper focus when he saw the flyers. “What’s taking them, do you think? Snatching children from a thoroughly ordinary street like this. Why’s it so cold? Is someone reducing the temperature?” he asked, not giving her time to answer between one question and the next.

So that answered that: it was definitely colder here. “It says they all went missing this week. Why would a person do something like this?”

“What makes you think it’s a person?”

Rose’s mind worked furiously, putting together what they knew. “It is colder here, yeah?” she asked. “So maybe whatever is taking the children is at the coldest point.”

Terraced houses and semi-detached houses lined both sides of the street. A few doors down, a woman hurried out of her house with the rubbish bin. She looked at them suspiciously and then all but ran back into her house. “Whatever it is, it’s got the whole street scared to death. C’mon,” she said, grabbing his hand and pulling him down the street.

“Around this corner, here.” He pulled her down another street, into a small front garden with a football goal set up.

The Doctor squatted down in front of the goal, but Rose didn’t set foot in the garden. The air felt different, almost alive with energy. “Doctor, what is that? It feels like every hair on my body is standing on end, like I was just shocked.”

He looked at her with narrowed eyes. “You can feel that?” he asked sharply.

She pulled up the sleeve of her jacket so he could see the hairs on her arm. “Yeah, look. It’s sorta like… a tickle?”

Concern, surprise, fear, and a little bit of cautious hope swept over their connection, and she shivered at the weight of his emotions. “What is it?”

“It’s something you shouldn’t be able to feel,” he said. “There’s a strong magnetic field here, but humans shouldn’t be…” He stopped and stared at her for a moment.

“Have you noticed anything else lately?” he asked, his eyes sharp as his gaze swept over her. “Maybe being able to retrace your own steps, so you never get lost?”

Rose started to say no, but the TARDIS nudged a memory forward. “Yeah…” she said slowly. “On the spaceship with the clockwork droids, I knew I could find the TARDIS again.”

The Doctor sucked in a breath.

“What’s this mean, Doctor?”

“I don’t know. Maybe nothing,” he said, but she could feel his anticipation, and the words lingering unspoken in his mind— _maybe everything._

A sound a few streets over pulled Rose out of the moment. She cocked her head: a car stalling, unless she missed her guess. “C’mon,” she said, pulling the Doctor behind her. “Let’s get out of this garden before the owner wonders what we’re doing.”

Around the corner, they spotted a stalled Mini, just as Rose had thought. A short black man with cropped hair, dressed in a bright construction worker vest, was pushing it up the street along with the owner. “Let’s give a hand,” Rose suggested, but before they reached the car, it suddenly started up again.

“Well that’s odd,” the Doctor said, catching the attention of the worker.

“Does this happen a lot?” Rose asked him.

The poor council worker gave an aggrieved sigh. “Been doing it all week.”

Rose and the Doctor shared a look. “Since those children started going missing?”

The man looked at her then, wariness in his eyes. “Yeah, I suppose so.”

“Tell me about it, ah… what’s your name?” the Doctor asked.

“Kel.”

“Right then Kel, tell me what’s happening on this street.”

Kel nodded back toward his work van. “Yeah, I’ve just gotta…” Rose nodded, and the three of them started walking down the street.

“Every car cuts out. The council are going nuts. I mean, they’ve given this street the works. Renamed it. I’ve been tarmacking every pot hole.” He pointed to a smooth patch of tarmac. “Look at that. Beauty, innit? Yeah! And all that is because that Olympic Torch comes right by the end of this close,” he said, tilting his head back toward the corner. “Just down there. Everything’s got to be perfect, ain’t it? Only it ain’t.”

Over Kel’s shoulder, Rose spotted an old woman walking toward them. She shook her head when she heard Kel’s last sentence. “It takes them when they’re playing.”

Rose blinked at the apparent non sequitur. “What takes them?”

“Danny, Jane, Dale. Snatched in the blink of an eye.”

An angry looking man in a maroon rugby shirt strode around the corner, pointing at Rose and the Doctor. “Oi! You two! What’s your game?”

Rose sensed the Doctor’s flippancy a split second too late to stop him. “My… Snakes and Ladders? Quite good at squash.”

Rose elbowed him in the ribs and smiled at the angry man. “Pay no mind to him. What seems to be the trouble?” she asked him.

The man glared at them, his hands clenching into fists at his side. “I saw you two, down on your knees in front of the goal, right where Dale went missing.”

_Right,_ the Doctor realised. _Kids have gone missing and we’re poking around the same places they disappeared from._ “Ah,” he said, searching for some explanation the angry human in front of him might believe.

Meanwhile, the man’s face was turning red. “And now you’re poking around, asking questions.”

The Doctor reached into his pocket. “I’m, I’m a police officer!” he said, trying to find the psychic paper. “That’s what I am. I’ve got a badge and a police car.” _In a manner of speaking._ _“_ You don’t have to get… I can, I can prove it. Just hold on.”

The man scowled and pointed an accusing finger at them. “We’ve had plenty of coppers poking around here, and you don’t look or sound like any of them.”

“But look, I’ve got a colleague,” he added, nodding toward Rose. “Lewis,” he improvised, the fake name rolling off his tongue before he could stop himself.

“Well, she looks less like a copper than you do,” the man snorted derisively.

“Training. New recruit.” _Where is the bloody psychic paper?_ “It was either that or hairdressing.” He dug deeper into his pocket and finally felt the smooth leather he needed. “Voila!” he said, pulling the psychic paper out and waving it in front of the angry man.

His false credentials worked, but their argument had drawn the attention of the neighbours, and a crowd gathered around them. “What are you going to do?” a smartly dressed black woman asked.

The elderly woman shook her head sadly. “The police have knocked on every door. No clues, no leads, nothing.”

“Look, kids run off sometimes, all right?” said the man who’d been ready to fight the Doctor moments before. “That’s what they do.”

The Doctor didn’t believe that, and he didn’t think the man believed it either. It was just safer to tell himself that than to believe something was taking the children.

The old woman rolled her eyes. “Saw it with me own eyes. Dale Hicks in your garden, playing with your Tommy, and then pfft! Right in front of me, like he was never there.”

_Like he was never there_. The kind of energy displacement necessary to make a living being vanish entirely would create a huge electromagnetic charge, which explained what he and Rose had felt by the goal.

The part of his mind that was still trying to figure out how that was possible pushed to the fore, and he shoved it back. This was not the time for that; finding the children had to come first.

“There’s no need to look any further than this street,” she continued. “It’s right here amongst us.”

_Spouting rhetoric won’t bring the children back._ The Doctor took a non-aggressive posture and said,“Why don’t we—”

A young ginger woman interrupted the Doctor, pointing angrily at Kel. “Why don’t we start with him? There’s been all sorts like him in this street, day and night.”

_All sorts like him._ The Doctor couldn’t tell if she was being classist or racist, but there was definitely an -ist in there.

Kel felt it too. “Fixing things up for the Olympics,” he said, and the Doctor winced at the defensive pitch in his voice.

“Yeah, and taking an awful long time about it,” Tommy’s dad accused.

The tenor of the group was fast becoming hysterical. The Doctor held up a hand in a calming gesture. “I’m of the opinion that all we’ve got to do is just—”

Kel interrupted him this time, understandably upset at the accusations. “You don’t… What you just said, that’s slander!”

The woman shook her head angrily. “I don’t care what it is.”

The Doctor tried again. “I think we need to just—”

“I want an apology off her,” Kel insisted.

The old woman chastised the younger set. “Stop picking on him.”

By now, the neighbours were so worked up, breaking into the conversation would be almost impossible. _It’s like watching tennis,_ Rose said as insults and accusations were volleyed back and forth, and the Doctor agreed.

“Yeah, stop picking on me,” Kel said.

“And stop pretending to be blind,” the old woman told her neighbours. “It’s evil!”

The ginger crossed her arms and shook her head. “I don’t believe in evil.”

Kel snorted. “Oh no, you just believe in tarmackers with sack loads of kidnapped kiddies in their van.”

Tommy’s dad waved his hand in an effort to calm Kel down. “Here, here, here, that’s not what she’s saying.”

“Would you stop ganging up on me?” Kel demanded.

The ginger, whom the Doctor was taking a distinct dislike to, prodded at Kel. “Feeling guilty, are we?”

_Time to take control!_ “Fingers on lips!” The locals were a little taken aback, but one by one they all put their fingers to their lips. Rose was watching, both her hands at her sides. He looked at her hands, then raised his eyebrows pointedly, and she slowly brought a finger to her lips.

The quiet calmed the atmosphere, and he was able to start asking questions. “In the last six days, three of your children have been stolen. Snatched out of thin air, right?”

“Can I?” the old woman asked, and the Doctor nodded. “Look around you. This was a safe street till it came.” For the first time, he took a good look around him. It was late afternoon, but no children were playing outside.

The woman’s voice shook as she carried on. “It’s not a person. I’ll say it if no one else will. Maybe you’re coppers, maybe you’re not. I don’t care who you are. Can you please help us?”

“We’ll do our best,” he promised, and the serious tone in his voice did more to ease the minds of the people than anything else.

One by one they all went back to their homes, until the old woman was the only one remaining. “So—oh, hang on. I haven’t asked your name.”

“I’m Maeve,” she told him. “And the one next to me, she was Alice, and Trish beside her. The man who started accusing you, that was Frank.”

“All right then, Maeve. Can you tell us anything else about the children? Where did they go missing from? I know Dale was standing in Frank’s garden, that was my first clue something was wrong. What about the others?”

“Jane Smith was the first one. No one saw what happened to her, but after Danny and Dale, I knew it was the same thing taking them.”

Rose had wandered down the street a ways while he talked to Maeve, but she rejoined them now. “Tell us about Danny,” she said.

“He was cycling and went through that alley there,” the Doctor looked at the narrow entrance she pointed at. “I saw him go in, but he never came out. And his bike is missing too.”

The Doctor pressed his tongue against the back of his teeth as he assimilated what Maeve had said into what he’d already heard about the disappearances. “Thank you, Maeve. You’ve been a tremendous help.”

She smiled tremulously and shuffled off down the street. The Doctor turned to Rose, who had her eye on the house across the street. “What did you see?” he asked her.

“There was someone in the window looking down at us, a child,” she said. “And when she noticed I was watching, Trish went back inside really quick.”

The Doctor looked up at the window, but there wasn’t anyone there now. “We’ll come back to that later. First I want to know a little more about what we’re up against.”

He took her hand and they walked back down the street to Frank’s house. The man peered at them through the window, but he didn’t interrupt when the Doctor got down on his hands and knees and pushed his nose into the grass.

_Ah, there it is,_ he thought, his sniffing picking up the metallic tang left behind by an electrical discharge.

Rose took a deep breath. “That smell, it’s… sort of metal,” she said. “That’s a clue, right? A clue to how they keep disappearing.”

The Doctor straightened up and brushed the cut grass off his knees and hands. “I think so, yeah.”

They grinned at each other, feeling the thrill of the chase and a clue slotting into place. The Doctor walked away, waving at Frank over his shoulder. He led Rose into the alley Maeve had indicated. “Danny Edwards cycled in one end but never came out the other.”

They walked into another zone of electromagnetic energy, and he and Rose stopped at the same moment. “Whoa, there it is again!” Rose said, pulling the sleeve of her jacket up.

The Doctor sucked in a breath as a million possibilities swirled around him. “Not a coincidence then,” he murmured.

“What?”

“Look at the hairs on the back of my manly, hairy hand,” he said, holding it out next to Rose’s smaller hand.

She raised an eyebrow. “It’s standing on end, just like mine.”

The Doctor heard the unspoken, “Yeah, so?” at the end of her sentence, and he shook his head. “I told you humans shouldn’t be able to sense that. I didn’t tell you…” He swallowed. “Sensing electromagnetic fields is one of the extra senses Time Lords have.”

Rose’s brow furrowed in concentration. “Like time senses or… or feeling the rotation of the Earth?”

“Or the ability to perfectly retrace your own steps.”

“Doctor…” Uncertainty crept into Rose’s voice. “What are you saying?”

The Doctor easily understood her unwillingness to get her hopes up, and he tugged her into his arms for a reassuring hug. “All we know for sure is that you’ve got extra abilities beyond time senses. We’ll figure out why later.”

Rose tried to hide something from him, and he pulled back to look her in the eyes. “Rose? Is there more?”

She bit her lip, then sighed. “I’ve only been sleeping four or maybe five hours every night, and I don’t know if you’ve noticed,” she said with a flirty smile, “but I don’t get out of breath either.”

The Doctor’s eyes widened. The evidence was rapidly mounting. “We’ll do a scan later, all right?”

“Yeah, all right.”

The Doctor tugged on his ear, unsure of what to say next. Rose saved him, as usual. “But first, let’s find the kids.” She smiled and slipped her hand into his, and he knew they’d be fine no matter what they learned.

They turned the corner at the end of the alley, and Rose suddenly cooed, “Aren’t you a beautiful boy?”

The Doctor preened at the compliment. “Thanks! I’m experimenting with back combing.”

Rose laughed and bent down to pet a ginger cat ambling down the street.

“Oh,” the Doctor said, disgruntled

The cat purred as Rose stroked its back, arching into her touch. “I used to have one like you.”

The Doctor shoved his hands into his pockets, and Rose looked at him over her shoulder. “Jealous?” she asked, her voice tinged with humour and incredulity.

A denial was on the tip of his tongue, but then he remembered: _Do not lie to your bond mate._ It was a social rule woven into the very fabric of Gallifreyan culture.

But a policy against lying left room for deflection. “I’m not really a cat person,” he said, nodding to the ginger tabby. “Once you’ve been threatened by one in a nun’s wimple, it kind of takes the joy out of it.”

The cat walked into a cardboard box, and Rose called out to it. “Come here, puss. What do you want to go in there for?”

Hearing a faint yowl, the Doctor looked around quickly, his senses alert to anything that might be amiss.

“Doctor!” Rose had tipped over the box the cat had gone into. It was empty.

The Doctor jogged over to her, and then he caught a whiff. The scent was stronger here than it had been in the garden or the alley. “Whoa! Hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo.” He waved at the air to disperse the unpleasant odour and picked the box up. “Ion residue. Blimey! That takes some doing.” He turned the box over in his hands, making sure there wasn’t a hole the cat could have escape through. “Just to snatch a living organism out of space-time. This baby is just like, ‘I’m having some of that!’ I’m impressed.”

“So the cat’s been transported?” Rose asked.

“It can harness huge reserves of ionic power.” He rocked back on his heels. “We need to find the source of that power,” he said, waving his finger in front of Rose.

He looked up and down the street, hoping something would just jump out at him. “Find the source and you will find whatever has taken to stealing children and fluffy animals. See what you can see. Keep them peeled, Lewis,” he concluded, pointing to his eyes and then to Rose before striding off.

Rose watched him walk away, his coat billowing behind him just the way he liked. It was reassuring to see him acting normally. The conversation in the alley had freaked her out a little; he seemed to be implying she wasn’t entirely human anymore, but how could that be possible?

A new thought occurred to her. If she wasn’t human, maybe she wouldn’t wither and die. She remembered how her promise of forever had settled into their timelines, and allowed herself to hope.

_Well, if I’m supposed to keep my eyes open, I’d better start looking._ She turned in the opposite direction from the Doctor, paying careful attention to all the houses as she walked down the street.

At the top of the close, in a stretch of brick terraced houses with garages below, Rose heard a noise that sounded like an animal scratching at a door, trying to get out. “Is that you, puss cat? Are you trapped?”

The scratch turned into a rattle, and she put her ear to the door to see if she could tell who was inside the garage. As soon as she did, a loud bang startled her away. She stared at the door, her curiosity brimming. “Not going to open it, not going to open it, not going to open it…”

Her hands twitched; she’d been with the Doctor too long to let a clue like this go. Mustering her courage, she reached down to the handle and slowly lifted the door, bracing herself for whatever might be inside.

When the door reached eye level, she tilted her head to see what was inside. Before she knew what was happening, something rushed at her, buzzing in her face. Rose let out a shout, then dropped to the ground and protected her head.

The Doctor was coming back, she knew. Over the buzzing, she heard the sound of footsteps running toward her, and then the Doctor shouted, “Stay still!” He pointed the sonic at what looked like a strange ball of wire, and it shrank to the size of a tennis ball and dropped into her hand.

She lay on the ground for another moment, gasping for air. Then he was in front of her, helping her to her feet. Fear and adrenaline buzzed between them, and she couldn’t tell who’d been more worried, him or her.

“Okey dokey?” he asked.

“Yeah, cheers,” she answered, still breathing heavily.

He moved her arms up around her neck and gave her a quick hug. “No probs.” Relief made them both a little dizzy, and he held her for a moment longer than was truly necessary.

He brushed his lips over her forehead and then finally let her go. They both looked down at the ball of twine in her hand. “I’ll give you a fiver if you can tell me what the hell it is, because I haven’t got the foggiest,” the Doctor said.

Rose raised it up to examine it more closely. “Well, I can tell you you’ve just killed it.”

He took it from her. “It was never living. It’s animated by energy. Same energy that’s snatching people. That is so dinky!” he said, tossing it in the air like a ball. “The go anywhere creature. Fits in your pocket, makes friends, impresses the boss, breaks the ice at parties.”

Then he put it in his pocket. “But I can’t analyse it with the sonic.”

“Back to the TARDIS then?” Rose asked, offering him her hand.

“Back to the TARDIS.”

In the control room, the Doctor hooked it up to the scanners and watched as the results showed on the monitor. “Oh, hi ho, here we go. Let’s have a look.” The scanner dinged, and he peered at the monitor. “Get out of here.” 

Rose looked at the screen, but as always the words were in the mysterious circular language she assumed was his native tongue. “What’s it say?”

He picked the ball up and rubbed at it with a rubber. Rose blinked when part of it disappeared, as if it had been erased.

“It is,” the Doctor said, surprise in his voice. “It’s graphite. Basically the same material as an HB pencil.”

She looked at it and then at the Doctor, a little dubious. “I was attacked by a pencil scribble?”

“Scribble creature, brought into being with ionic energy. Whatever we’re dealing with, it can create things as well as take them. But why make a scribble creature?”

“Maybe it was a mistake. I mean, you scribble over something when you want to get rid of it, like a, like a drawing.” Her words slowed as the pieces came together. “Like a, a child’s drawing.” She looked up at the Doctor. “You said it was in the street.”

The Doctor met her gaze, and something in his eyes sent a shiver down Rose’s spine. “Probably.”

“The girl.”

“Of course!” he exclaimed, then stared at her blankly. “What girl?”

Rose thought about the girl she’d seen in the window, and the way her mother looked at her. “Something about her gave me the creeps. Even her own mum looked scared of her.”

“Are you deducting?” he asked in a low voice, shifting a little bit closer. Attraction and desire coursed between them, and Rose felt a thrill at having found one of his turn-ons.

Rose matched his movement until their shoulders touched. “I think I am.”

“Copper’s hunch?” His gaze dropped to her lips.

“Permission to follow it up, Sarge.” Rose placed her hand on his chest and looked up at him through her eyelashes.

“Oh, I insist, Lewis,” he said huskily, dropping his lips to hers.

Rose sighed into the kiss and wrapped her arms around his waist. The Doctor’s hands moved into her hair, and something tangled in it. Rose tried to ignore the stinging sensation of her hair being pulled out, but then she remembered what the Doctor held. _The scribble creature. The girl._ She pulled away, his reluctance making it even harder.

“Gonna have to try harder than that to distract me. Let’s go finish this investigation,” she said breathlessly.


	30. Chapter 30

Chapter 30

For once as the Doctor and Rose walked back down the street, they weren’t hand in hand. His hand tingled with the need to touch her, but he wasn’t sure how much longer his restraint would hold. _Better to stay focused on what’s going on here, and then later…_ He sent Rose just a hint of the plans he had for the next trip—the trip when the teasing would finally end.

He saw her swallow hard, and her finger was shaking when she pointed to a house with a plant hanging from the corner of the garage. “That house there.”

The Doctor rang the doorbell first, and then when there wasn’t a response, he rapped lightly on the window. Finally, Trish opened the door. “Hello. I’m the Doctor and this is Rose. Can we see your daughter?”

Trish stared at them, her lips pressed into a thin line. She was trying to be firm and angry, but all he saw in her eyes was fear. “No, you can’t.”

“Okay. Bye.” Rose and the Doctor turned on their heels and walked away.

He counted silently as he and Rose walked down the path. He’d only reached four when Trish called after them. “Why? Why do you want to see Chloe?”

They turned back around, and the Doctor affected his most casual demeanour. “Well, there’s some interesting stuff going on in this street, and I just thought—” He nodded at Rose. “Well, we thought, that she might like to give us a hand.”

Rose waved at her. “Sorry to bother you.”

“Yeah, sorry. We’ll let you get on with things. On your own. Bye again.” The “on your own” might have been laying it on a bit thick, but he knew a desperate woman when he saw one.

They didn’t even reach the corner of the garage before Trish broke. “Wait!” They turned around, and now she wasn’t even trying to hide how scared she was. “Can you help her?”

“Yes, I can.”

She stepped back from the door, and he and Rose walked inside. “We can sit in the living room,” Trish said, and the Doctor noticed the way she nervously brushed her palms against her trousers.

The telly was on, showing the torchbearer running the torch up the Mall toward Buckingham Palace. Rose sat down on the sofa, but the Doctor just took off his coat and tossed it down next to her, staying on his feet.

Trish stood in the doorway, rocking back and forth slightly. “She stays in her room most of the time. I try talking to her, but it’s like trying to speak to a brick wall. She gives me nothing, just asks to be left alone.”

“What about Chloe’s dad?” Rose asked, warm concern in her voice.

Trish’s face went completely blank. “Chloe’s dad died a year ago.”

The Doctor felt the echo of remembered pain from Rose.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

Trish tried to laugh. “You wouldn’t be if you’d known him.”

_And time to change the subject!_ “Well, let’s go and say hi,” the Doctor suggested

Trish bit her lip and glanced toward the stairs. “I should check on her first. She might be asleep.”

It was obviously an excuse, and the Doctor decided to call her out on it. “Why are you afraid of her, Trish?”

Trish tilted her head, and her eyes glistened with unshed tears. “I want you to know before you see her that she’s really a great kid,” she said, her voice trembling a little.

“I’m sure she is.”

“She’s never been in trouble at school. You should see her report from last year. A’s and B’s.”

Rose smiled up at Trish and then asked, “Can I use your loo?” Trish nodded, and the Doctor watched Rose leave the room to do a little investigating of her own.

Trish was none the wiser to his companion’s true intentions, and she carried on with her explanation of Chloe’s good traits. “She’s in the choir. She’s singing in an old folks home. Any mum would be proud, you know. I want you to know these things before you see her, Doctor, because right now, she’s not herself.”

The Doctor started to answer, then cocked his head. “I think Chloe’s coming downstairs,” he said, moving past Trish into the foyer. He followed the sounds into the kitchen, Trish right behind him.

A young girl of about twelve stood in front of the open refrigerator, drinking milk straight out of the carton. “All right, there? I’m the Doctor.” He rested his weight on a small table, bringing himself down to eye level without being condescending.

The girl closed the door, which was covered with drawings. “I’m Chloe Webber.”

He raised an eyebrow. Most children wouldn’t introduce themselves by first and last name. “How’re you doing, Chloe Webber?”

“I’m busy. I’m making something, aren’t I, Mum?”

There was a threatening note to those last words, and Trish’s voice was high and nervous. “And like I said, she’s not been sleeping.”

Less than a minute into the conversation and he knew Rose’s instincts were spot on, as usual. There was something not right with Chloe Webber; what’s more, her mum knew it.

He looked at the drawings on the fridge. “But you’ve been drawing, though. I’m rubbish. Stick men about my limit. Can do this, though,” he said, raising his hand in the Vulcan salute. “Can you do that?”

Chloe looked at him with the patented teen combination of insolence and derision, a look she shouldn’t master for at least another few years. “They don’t stop moaning,” she said sullenly.

“Chloe,” Trish said helplessly.

“I try to help them, but they don’t stop moaning.”

“Who don’t?” the Doctor asked.

“We can be together.”

“Sweetheart.”

Trish rushed around him to Chloe, but when she tried to hug her daughter, the girl pulled back. “Don’t touch me, Mum.”

The Doctor and Trish shared a look. Something was very, very wrong with this girl, and he’d bet his old leather jacket it had something to do with the missing children.

“I could,” he swallowed and nodded, “I could teach you to do the thing with the hand if you want, and maybe you could teach me to draw.”

“I’m busy, Doctor,” she said and walked to the stairs.

“Come on, Chloe, don’t be a spoil sport,” he cajoled, following her as far as the kitchen door. “What’s the big project? I’m dying to know. What’re you making up there?”

_Doctor!!_

Rose’s panicked cry reverberated through their bond, and the Doctor pushed off the wall and bolted for the stairs, heedless of anything but getting to her as quickly as possible.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Rose wandered down the hall, waiting until she was sure Trish was focused back on the Doctor before going up the stairs. At the rate they were going, the woman might never let them actually see her daughter, so it was up to her to poke around while the Doctor tried to charm her.

She eyed the doors leading off the landing, wondering which led to Chloe’s room. Before she’d picked one to try, Rose saw a shadow under the door of the room directly in front of her, and realised she was about to be caught. She hurriedly slipped into the airing closet just before the young girl left her room and went downstairs.

Once the coast was clear, she carefully opened the doors and crept across the hall to Chloe’s room. At first glance it looked like the same room any young girl might have, but then Rose realised the walls were covered with drawings.

Wind chimes tinkled eerily in the background as Rose took a closer look at the pictures. In one, she recognised the cat that had disappeared earlier sitting next to a boy, but before she could examine it any closer, the wardrobe door rattled.

Rose spun around, knocking a pencil cup to the floor in her haste. She bent down to pick them up, and when she stood up, the boy in the picture with the cat was glaring at her—and he hadn’t been before.

Her gaze moved over the other drawings. The girl was crying… tears were actually moving down her face. The cat was giving itself a bath. They were all moving.

The wardrobe door rattled again, harder than before. Rose pulled her eyes away from the mesmerising drawings and slowly crossed the room to the door, which sported yet another drawing. Mindful of what had happened the last time she’d opened a rattling door, she turned the handle cautiously.

A wind rushed at her from inside the wardrobe, and she had a sudden memory of reading _The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe_ as a child. Chloe’s clothes billowed in the breeze, and her own hair flew in her face.

Mustering her courage, she pushed the clothes out of the way. On the back wall of the wardrobe was a painting, a painting of a beast with glowing eyes. “I’m coming,” the beast whispered.  

Rose wanted to close the doors, but she couldn’t. _Doctor!!_ she called in desperation, her eyes fixed on the creature from the pit.

“I’m coming to hurt you,” it said, more menacing this time. Rose swayed on her feet, feeling like the wind was sucking her into the wardrobe, toward the monster at the back.

The Doctor ran into the room and slammed the doors shut. Their eyes met, and she was surprised to see how on edge he was. All thoughts of the beast in the closet vanished for a moment. She grabbed his hand and ran her thumb over his pulse point, sending waves of calm toward him.

He accepted her telepathic reassurance and squeezed her hand, and then Trish came into the room. “What the hell was that?”

Rose leaned against the doors while the Doctor put on his specs and went to inspect the artwork on the walls. “A drawing. The face of a man.”

“What face?”

Trish grabbed for the handle, but Rose covered it up and shook her head. “Best not.”

The woman turned to her daughter. “What’ve you been drawing?”

“I drew him yesterday,” Chloe said.

“Who?”

“Dad.”

The Doctor and Rose shared a look at that, remembering what Trish had said about Chloe’s father. _Why would she want to draw him?_ Rose wondered.

Trish took a step back. “Your dad? But he’s long gone. Chloe, with all the lovely things in the world, why him?”

“I dream about him, staring at me.” Rose shuddered at the thought. If Chloe’s dreams were anything like her drawing, they were more like nightmares.

“I thought we were putting him behind us,” Trish said, anxious despair in her voice. “What’s the matter with you?”

“We need to stay together,” Chloe said, as if that explained everything.

Trish took a shuddering breath and stepped toward Chloe. “Yes, we do.”

“No. Not you, us. We need to stay together, and then it’ll be all right.” Trish moved forward and hugged her daughter.

Rose had a feeling that odd statement was the key to the entire mystery, but she didn’t know how to ask who Chloe meant by “we.” Instead, she pushed the issue of the drawings. “Trish, the drawings. Have you seen what Chloe’s drawings can do?”

Trish looked at her, and Rose realised she’d been caught. “Who gave you permission to come into her room? Get out of my house,” she demanded angrily.

The Doctor put down the picture he was looking at. “Tell us about the drawings, Chloe.”

Trish looked over at him. “I don’t want to hear any more of this.”

_We’ve got to make her understand._ “But that drawing of her dad. I heard a voice. He spoke.”

“He’s dead,” Trish insisted. “And these, they’re kid’s pictures. Now get out!”

Rose barrelled on, ignoring Trish’s demands. “Chloe has a power.” The girl fixed her gaze on Rose, but Rose refused to feel threatened or intimidated. “And I don’t know how, but she used it to take Danny Edwards, Dale Hicks. She’s using it to snatch the kids.”

“Get out.”

“Have you seen those drawings move?”

“I haven’t seen anything,” Trish said, but she didn’t meet Rose’s eyes.

“Yes, you have,” the Doctor countered, “out of the corner of your eye.”

Trish spun around to face him. “No,” she said, but it sounded more like a plea than an angry retort.

“And you dismissed it, because what choice do you have when you see something you can’t possibly explain?” He stepped forward until he was right in Trish’s face, and Rose watched him break down the woman’s defences. “You dismiss it, right? And if anyone mentions it, you get angry, so it’s never spoken of, ever again.”

“She’s a child,” Trish pleaded.

“You’re terrified of her. But there’s nowhere to turn to, because who’s going to believe the things you see out of the corner of your eye? No one.” He paused and relaxed his dominant posture. “Except me.”

“Who are you?”

“I’m help,” he said, making the offer hardly anyone turned down.

Rose waited a beat to see if Trish would argue again. When she stayed quiet, she suggested, “Why don’t we go back downstairs, and you can tell us what you know?” Trish swallowed hard and nodded, and the adults all went into the kitchen.

The Doctor settled himself against the worktop, grabbing a jar as he leaned back. Rose’s mouth dropped open when he opened it and started eating the marmalade with his fingers, straight from the jar. _What are you doing?_ she asked him. He looked up at her and she shook her head slightly.

Caught with his hand in the cookie jar, almost literally, he slowly took his fingers out of his mouth and put the jar back where he’d found it.

Trish was watching them, her arms wrapped around herself in a protective gesture. _Time to get back to the subject at hand._ “Those pictures, they’re alive. She’s drawing people and they end up in her pictures.” Rose looked at the Doctor, waiting for him to answer the question she hadn’t asked.

The Doctor crossed his arms across his chest and nodded. “Ionic energy,” he said, slipping into his rapid-fire lecture mode. “Chloe’s harnessing it to steal those kids and place them in some kind of holding pen made up of ionic power.”

Rose raised her eyebrows—that all made perfect sense and explained how she was taking the kids, but it didn’t explain… “And what about the dad from hell in her wardrobe?”

Trish interrupted before the Doctor could answer. “How many times do I have to tell you he’s dead?”

Rose was sick of that argument. She’d been the only one who’d seen the picture, and Chloe had said it was her father. “Well, he’s got a very loud voice for a dead bloke,” she muttered.

Between Rose’s annoyance and Trish’s denial, the Doctor felt like the central point of the case was being brushed aside. “If living things can become drawings, then maybe drawings can become living things.”

He shuddered as the full truth became clear. “Chloe’s real dad is dead, but not the one who visits her in her nightmares. That dad seems very real. That’s the dad she’s drawn and he’s a heartbeat away from crashing into this world.”

Trish’s anger deflated. “She always got the worst of it when he was alive.”

“Doctor, how can a twelve year old girl be doing any of this?”

The Doctor had been struggling with anger that anyone would ever mistreat a child, and Rose’s question brought him back to the present. “Let’s find out.” He pushed himself away from the worktop and strode out of the kitchen, confidant both Rose and Trish would follow him up the stairs.

When he entered Chloe’s room, she was sitting cross-legged on her bed, as if she’d been waiting for them. Her gaze followed him as he walked to the centre of the room, and then she gave him the Vulcan salute.

Her sense of humour tickled him, but it also made him angry that someone or something was using this sweet girl. “Nice one.”

The creature inside Chloe didn’t want to talk as long as she was awake, but if he put her to sleep, he could communicate with it. Trish would argue with what he was about to do, so he just got down on one knee and put his hands on Chloe’s temples without a word of explanation.

Sending Chloe into delta wave sleep was easy. What shook the Doctor was the overwhelming loneliness he felt in the child’s mind. Chloe’s body went limp and he cradled her head as he lowered her back onto the bed, wondering as he did where the loneliness came from. “There we go.”

“I can’t let him do this,” Trish said.

Rose calmed the mother. “Shush, it’s okay. Trust him.”

The Doctor stood over the supine body of Chloe Webber. “Now we can talk.”

A hoarse whisper came from Chloe’s mouth. “I want Chloe. Wake her up. I want Chloe.”

“Who are you?” the Doctor asked.

“I want Chloe Webber.” Chloe’s hand lifted up in the air and then slammed back onto the mattress in a fit of temper.

“What’ve you done to my little girl?” Trish begged.

“Doctor, what is it?” Rose asked.

The Doctor paced around the bed. “I’m speaking to you, the entity that is using this human child. I request parley in compliance with the Shadow Proclamation.”

“I don’t care about shadows or parleys.”

Now they were getting somewhere, because every invasive alien race he knew about was at least familiar with the Shadow Proclamation, even if they sneered at it. “So what do you care about?”

“I want my friends.”

The Doctor crouched down at the side of the bed. “You’re lonely, I know.” That unbearable loneliness, along with her earlier statement that “we need to stay together” hinted at what the creature might be, but it wasn’t enough. “Identify yourself.”

“I am one of many. I travel with my brothers and sisters. We take an endless journey. A thousand of your lifetimes.” Ideas swam through the Doctor’s mind, races this entity could belong to, but he couldn’t place the entire story.

Chloe’s eyes snapped open. “But now I am alone. I hate it. It’s not fair, and I hate it.”

“Name yourself!”

“Isolus.”

Comprehension flooded through him, along with sympathy and compassion. “You’re Isolus. Of course.”

“Our journey began in the deep realms when we were a family.” Chloe’s hand began drawing frantically.

“What’s that?” Trish asked.

The Doctor watched as the flowerlike creature appeared on the page. “The Isolus Mother, drifting in deep space. See, she jettisons millions of fledgling spores. Her children. The Isolus are empathic beings of intense emotions, but when they’re cast off from their mother, their empathic link, their need for each other, is what sustains them. They need to be together. They cannot be alone.”

“Our journey is long.”

The Doctor continued to expand on the Isolus’ story. “The Isolus children travel, each inside a pod. They ride the heat and energy of solar tides. It takes thousands and thousands of years for them to grow up.”

“Thousands of years just floating through space. Poor things,” Rose said. “Don’t they go mad with boredom?

“We play,” the Isolus said.

Rose moved forward slightly, looking down at Chloe. “You play?”

The Doctor sat down beside Chloe. “While they travel, they play games. They use their ionic power to literally create make believe worlds in which to play.”

“In flight entertainment,” Rose said quietly.

“Helps keep them happy. While they’re happy, they can feed off each other’s love. Without it, they’re lost.”

The parallel was obvious, and he could tell Rose felt it too. The Doctor wondered how he would have taken the universe’s very unsubtle hint that he couldn’t hide from Rose if he hadn’t already made that decision for himself.

He took a deep breath and focused back on the child. “Why did you come to Earth?”

“We were too close.” She grabbed another piece of paper and began to draw again, this time sketching a picture of a sun with rays coming off it.

“That’s a solar flare from your sun. Would have made a tidal wave of solar energy that scattered the Isolus pods.”

“Only I fell to Earth. My brothers and sisters are left up there, and I cannot reach them. So alone.”

“Your pod crashed. Where is it?”

“My pod was drawn to heat, and I was drawn to Chloe Webber. She was like me, alone. She needed me, and I her.”

The Doctor stroked the side of the girl’s face, compassion overwhelming him. “You empathised with her. You wanted to be with her because she was alone like you.”

“I want my family. It’s not fair.”

He remembered his own children using those words, but in this case, it truly wasn’t fair. “I understand. You want to make a family. But you can’t stay in this child. It’s wrong. You can’t steal any more friends for yourself.”

“I am alone.”

A crash in the wardrobe startled them all. Something pounded on the doors, and a red light glowed from inside.  “I’m coming to hurt you. I’m coming,” a beastly voice growled.

Chloe started shaking in his arms. _She must be having a nightmare._ “Trish, how do you calm her?” he asked, stroking the child’s face, trying to soothe her as best as he could.

“What?” Trish was still looking at the wardrobe.

“When she has nightmares, what do you do?”

“I, I…”

“What do you do?” he demanded as the spectre in the wardrobe became more violent.

“I sing to her.”

“Then start singing.” He traded places with Trish, letting her sit on the bed next to her daughter.

In the wardrobe, the nightmare version of Chloe’s dad kept talking. “Chloe, I’m coming.” While Trish sang, he repeated Chloe’s name over and over.

“Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree. Merry, merry king of the bush is he. Laugh, Kookaburra, laugh, Kookaburra, gay your life must be. Laugh, Kookaburra, laugh, Kookaburra, gay your life must be.”

Chloe rolled over into her mother’s arms, and the beast disappeared from the wardrobe. Trish stroked her head. “It came to her because she was lonely. Chloe, I’m sorry.” Trish wrapped her daughter as close to her as she could and cried on her shoulder while Chloe slept.

After a few minutes, she stood up and wiped the tears from her face. “Let’s go back downstairs,” the Doctor suggested. “Now that we know what’s going on, we can talk about what to do next.”

“I know the first thing,” Trish said, grabbing all the pencils she could see. “Until we know how to get this Isolus out of my daughter, we’re taking all of these away from her.”

“Good plan,” Rose said.

Once she’d gotten all the pencils in Chloe’s bedroom, Trish led the way back downstairs. “Chloe usually got the brunt of his temper when he’d had a drink,” she said as she emptied the pencil cups. “The day he crashed the car, I thought we were free. I thought it was over.”

Rose handed her the pencils and pens on the coffee table. “Did you talk to her about it?”

Trish set her jaw. “I didn’t want to.”

“But maybe that’s why Chloe feels so alone,” Rose pointed out. “Because she has all these terrible dreams about her dad, but she can’t talk to you about them.”

The Doctor agreed. “Her and the Isolus. Two lonely kids who need each other.”

“And it won’t stop, will it, Doctor?” Rose asked him. “It’ll just keep pulling kids in.”

That was exactly what would happen. “It’s desperate to be loved. It’s used to a pretty big family.”

“How big?”

He drew in a deep breath. “Say around four billion?” Rose and Trish both looked a little shocked by the number. “I did say the Isolus mother jettisoned millions and millions of fledglings at once.”

“So… can you…” Trish held two handfuls of pencils and looked at him beseechingly.

“I can fix it. Rose and I will go back to our sh—department,” he corrected quickly. “We’ll get the right equipment to take care of this situation. You keep Chloe here and safe.”

Trish nodded and opened the front door for them. “Thank you, Doctor,” she said.

The Doctor pulled his coat back on as they walked away from the Webber house. “We need that pod.”

“It crashed,” Rose pointed out. “Won’t it be destroyed?”

“Well, it’s been sucking in all the heat it can. Hopefully that should keep it in a fit state to launch.” He didn’t tell her this was a slight hope at best, but he had a feeling she could tell. “It must be close. It should have a weak energy signature that the TARDIS can trace. Once we find it, then we can stop the Isolus.”

“So we’ll find the ship, show Chloe, and send the Isolus home?”

“That’s the plan, yeah.”

Rose nibbled on her lip. “You know Doctor, as far as plans go…”

“What?”

She looked up at him, a cheeky grin in place. “This happens to be one of your better ones.”

“Oi!” Rose laughed. “I’ll have you know I’m a master planner.”

She raised an eyebrow.

“Well I _could_ be, if plans were really worth anything. But really, they usually go to pot anyway, so what’s the point?”

“Right, that’s so reassuring, Doctor.”

Her amusement was effervescent, and despite himself, he couldn’t feign offence any longer. When he opened himself up to her to let her feel how happy she made him, Rose slipped her hand through his, and they walked back to the TARDIS.

“We can scan for the same trace that I picked up from the scribble creature. We’d need to widen the field a bit.”

The Doctor opened the door and went straight for the tool chest he kept underneath the console, the one that had all kinds of bits and bobs that might come in handy. Rummaging through, he pulled out the ones he needed and started to build a scanner.

Rose was sitting in the jump seat, watching him work. “You knew the Isolus was lonely before it told you. How?”

He budged her out of the seat, needing better leverage against the parts. “I know what it’s like to travel a long way on your own. Give me the styner-magnetic—” Rose stood in front of him, holding two tools out. “The thing in your left hand.”

There was a strange look on her face when she handed it to him. “Sounds like you’re on its side.”

The confusion and frustration he felt from her surprised him. “What’s really bothering you, Rose?”

She slouched against the console and blew out a breath. “I just can’t decide, y’know? Is it a lonely kid who needs help, or a spoiled brat demanding its own way?”

The Doctor blew the dust out of his gizmo, then looked at Rose with narrowed eyes. “You’re usually the one encouraging me to be more compassionate.”

“Yeah, well the Isolus is holding those kids hostage. That sorta changes my perspective.”

“It’s scared. Come on, you were a kid once. Binary dot.”

She handed him the binary dot. “Yes, and I know what kids can be like,” she insisted. “Right little… terrors.”

He quirked an eyebrow at her. That wasn’t the word she’d meant to use. “Gum,” he said, holding out his hand for it.

“But on the other hand,” she continued after she spat it out into his hand. “I saw the look on her face when she said they needed to be together.” The Doctor felt Rose reach out across their connection, and he returned the caress. “We’ve only had this for a few weeks, and already I can’t imagine not having you there, in my mind. So I wanna sympathise, but… it’s hard.”

“You have to give kids room to grow. Forgive their mistakes and point them in the right direction.”

“Easy for you to say. You don’t have kids.”

He paused. This wasn’t how he’d wanted to pass on this piece of information, but he wouldn’t lie to Rose, not even by omission. “I was a dad once,” he said quietly and braced for the reaction.

There was shock, but not dismay or revulsion. “What did you say?”

His instinct was to ignore her question, to just push on with the device, but Rose deserved more than that. If they were going to really be together, he had to give her more than that. “I had kids before, on Gallifrey. I even used to travel with my granddaughter.”

She stared at him, her mouth hanging open a bit, and the Doctor kept talking to fill the silence. “Well, when I say I had kids… we didn’t really live in family groups like you’re familiar with. And children were sent to the Academy when they were eight, so even the semblance of family life we did have didn’t last very long, but,” he drew in a breath, “I’ve had kids.”

Astonishment was still the only thing he felt from her, and he figured she was processing. “That all right?” he asked.

“What?” She blew out a breath. “Yeah, it’s fine. I just forget sometimes, how long you’d lived before you met me.”

He nodded and let the subject drop. “I think we’re there,” he said, and got up to flip the switches on the TARDIS console that would allow the ship to work with the scanner.

But he still wanted Rose to understand the Isolus, or at least try. “Fear, loneliness. They’re the big ones, Rose. Some of the most terrible acts ever committed have been inspired by them. We’re not dealing with something that wants to conquer or destroy. There’s a lot of things you need to get across this universe. Warp drive, wormhole refractors. You know the thing you need most of all? You need a hand to hold.”

Her hand appeared in his line of vision, and he took it with a grin. He still remembered how lost and lonely he’d been, until this incredible woman had slipped her hand into his and said, “There’s me.”

She laughed at him, which wasn’t the response he’d expected. “No, look, I’m pointing.”

He dropped her hand and spun to look at the monitor. The interstellar GPS was flashing, indicating it had triangulated the exact location of the pod. He watched as it homed in on the location, beaming in excitement when he realised exactly where the ship was. “It’s the pod! It is in the street. Everything’s coming up Doctor.”

Rose was equal parts exasperated and amused, a situation she was very familiar with when it came to her Doctor. There was also a fair bit of disorientation lingering regarding his bombshell, but she managed to force that to the back of her mind.

She followed him as he darted out of the TARDIS, holding the scanner out in front of him like some sort of metal detector. “Okay,” he said as he shoved his arms into his coat. “It’s about two inches across. Dull grey, like a gull’s egg. Very light.”

Rose started walking toward Dame Kelly Holmes Close, trusting the Doctor was right behind her. “So these pods, they travel from sun to sun using heat, yeah?” she said, pointing out something she felt he was ignoring. “So it’s not all about love and stuff. Doesn’t the pod just need heat?” 

To her, it was a logical argument, so she was surprised to feel a wave of anger and resentment from the Doctor. She braced herself for his argument, but instead she heard the crash of breaking glass.

What she saw when she turned around chilled her blood. The Doctor was gone, and the scanner lay in pieces on the tarmac. “Doctor?”

Then she realised it wasn’t just the Doctor who was gone. The TARDIS was missing as well.

“Doctor!”

 


	31. Chapter 31

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We finally, finally learn what's going on with Rose.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I need to thank my science advisor. Allegoricalrose has been a huge help on several chapters as I worked with the neuroscience questions surrounding telepathy. (It’s science fiction, not fantasy, so I want a sciencey reasoning.)

Rose closed her eyes for a moment. They were still in her mind, the TARDIS and the Doctor, but the connections were weak. Heart pounding in her chest, she ran to the Webber house and beat on the door. _Open up, open up!_

As soon as the door opened, Rose pushed past Trish and ran upstairs. “It’s okay, I’ve taken all the pencils off her,” Trish yelled at her, but Rose didn’t stop until she was in Chloe’s room.

She snatched up the picture Chloe had drawn of the Doctor and the TARDIS and scanned it quickly, taking in every detail. The Doctor stood with his hands in his pockets and a smile on his face. Rose could feel his trust and knew he believed she could fix this.

“Leave me alone,” the Isolus demanded. “I want to be with Chloe Webber. I love Chloe Webber.”

“Bring him back, now,” Rose said, hoping the direct approach would work.

“No.”

She ran a hand across her face and then grabbed Chloe by the shoulders. “Don’t you realise what you’ve done? He was the only one who could help you. Now bring him back!”

“Leave me alone! I love Chloe Webber!”

Rose couldn’t miss the combined loneliness of Chloe and the Isolus, and she knew there would be no reasoning with the scared child. _And shouting probably didn’t help,_ she acknowledged, chagrinned. “I know,” she told the girl quietly. “I know.”

She straightened up and looked straight at the drawing.  _Doctor, if you can hear me, I’m going to get you out of there. I’ll find the pod._

There was no answering response, nothing more than the same feeling of urgency and trust there’d been before. She remembered their provisional bond only allowed them to communicate telepathically if they were in the same room, and she swallowed hard. Numb fingers dropped the drawing as she turned around. “Don’t leave her alone, no matter what,” she told Trish as she left the room.

Outside, Rose muttered to herself, trying to figure out where the pod might have gone when it crashed. “Heat. They travel on heat.”

Kel was in the road, running his hand over a newly paved piece of tarmac. _He’s been in the street for the last week; maybe he’ll have an idea._

“Look at this finish,” he said proudly when she ran up to him. “Smooth as a baby’s bottom. Not a bump or a lump.”

Rose crouched down to meet his eyes. “Kel, was there anything in this street in the last few days giving off a lot of heat?”

“I mean, you can eat your dinner off this,” he rambled on. “Beautiful. So you tell me why the other one’s got a lump in it when I gave it the same love and craftsmanship as I did this one.”

Rose narrowed her eyes, but she kept her tone even. “Well, when you’ve worked it out, put it in a big book about tarmacking, but before you do that, think back six days.”

“Six days. When I was laying this the first time round,” he said, nodding proudly.

“What?” _They said he’d been here since the kids started going missing,_ she remembered.

“Well, that’s when I filled in this pothole for the first time,” he explained.

A lumpy tarmac job and a spot in the road where all the cars stalled out. That couldn’t be coincidence. “Six days ago.”

“Yeah.”

“Hot fresh tar.” This had to be it.

“Blended to a secret council recipe.”

Rose ran to his van, ignoring all of Kel’s protests as she opened it and climbed inside. There had to be something in here that would dig through the tarmac.

She laughed triumphantly and brandished a pick axe, much to Kel’s consternation. “Whoa, wait, wait, wait. You just removed a council axe from a council van. Put it back.” Rose jumped out of the van and strode purposely toward the piece of new tarmac Kel had indicated. “No, don’t, wait. Put the axe back in the van. That’s my van. Give me the axe. No! Wait! No!”

Out in the street, she started to dig up the road, anxious to find the pod and get the Doctor back. “No! You, stop! You just took a council axe from a council van and now you’re digging up a council road! I’m reporting you to the council!” Bits of tarmac flew in the air around her, but Rose kept working.

The axe hit something metal, and she bent down to dig through the road. Finally, she had it: a small pod, grey, no bigger than a goose egg. “It went for the hottest thing in the street. Your tar.”

Kel didn’t seem impressed. “What is it?”

“It’s a spaceship,” Rose said, cradling it in her hands. “Not a council spaceship, I’m afraid,” she added with a cheeky smile, and then ran back to the Webber’s front stoop.

“I’ve found it!” she announced gleefully as she pushed her way inside without knocking. “I don’t know what to do with it, but maybe the Isolus will just hop on board.” She looked around the living room and realised Chloe was nowhere to be seen. “Hang on, I told you not to leave her.”

Trish looked like she was going to argue, but Huw Edwards’ sudden shocked exclamation turned their attention to the television screen. “My God! Ah, what’s going on here?”

Rose stared in disbelief. The stadium was empty. The entire, huge Olympic stadium was absolutely empty. She glanced at the ceiling; there was no doubt to either her or Trish what had happened.

Kel shoved his way inside before they could do anything about it. “I don’t care if you’ve got Snow White and the Seven Dwarves buried under there, you don’t go digging up—”

“Shut up and look!” Rose said, pointing at the screen.

“The crowd has vanished!” Huw continued, stammering out a confirmation of what their own eyes had told them. “Um, they’re gone. Everyone has gone. Thousands of people have just gone. Right in front of my eyes. It’s—it’s impossible. Bob, can we join you in the box? Bob? Not you too, Bob?”

“The stadium won’t be enough,” Rose said quietly. “The Isolus has four billion brothers and sisters.”

Rose and Trish ran to Chloe’s room. “Chloe? Chloe, it’s Rose!” She turned the handle, but either the Isolus had locked it from the inside, or she’d put a chair under the knob. “Open the door!” she pleaded.

When the Isolus didn’t answer, Rose added a cajoling note to her voice. “We found your ship,” she told her. “We can send you home.”

“Chloe?” Trish tried.

“Open up!” They hadn’t gotten any response from inside the room. _Time to try something else._ “Right, stand back.”

They all heard the beastly voice again. “I’m coming to hurt you.”

Rose grabbed the axe and slammed it into Chloe’s door. “I’m coming, coming to hurt you,” the nightmare father threatened.

Rose kept hacking at the door, and finally she had enough space to slip her hand through and push the chair out of the way. “Chloe!” she yelled as she entered the room.

“I’m coming to hurt you. I’m coming.”

The Isolus was drawing a picture of the Earth on the wall. In a few more minutes, she would take the entire human population. “I’ve got to stop her,” Rose whispered, but as soon as she took a step toward Chloe, the noises from the wardrobe got even worse.

The Isolus looked at them, still drawing. “If you stop Chloe Webber, I will let him out. We will let him out together. I cannot be alone. It’s not fair.”

Rose held the ship out. “Look, I’ve got your pod.”

“The pod is dead.”

“No, it only needs heat.”

Chloe shook her head vehemently. “It needs more than heat.”

“What, then?” At this point, Rose would do anything. It wasn’t about bringing the Doctor back anymore; now the fate of the world rested in her hands. A small portion of her mind wondered how the Doctor handled this all the time.

“I’m not being funny or nothing,” Kel said, pointing to the wall, “but that picture just moved. And that one!”

Rose whirled around and spotted the picture of the Doctor and the TARDIS, only now there was something else on the paper. A torch. “She didn’t draw that, he did. But it needs more than heat, Doctor.”

Huw Edwards was still narrating, and Rose glanced up to see the torchbearer running through London. “—is still on its way. I suppose it’s much more than a torch now; it’s a beacon. It’s a beacon of hope and fortitude and courage. And it’s a beacon of love.”

The pieces fell into place. “Love.”

“So let’s have a look from the helicopter. There we go, the torch bearer running—”

“I know how to charge up the pod.” And there was a time limit, because if she didn’t get it done before the picture of the Earth was done…

Rose ran outside and down to the end of the close, where she could just see the torchbearer approaching. Kel was right behind her, probably still wanting his axe back. She pushed her way to the front of the crowd, but when she tried to get closer, a policeman stopped her. “Sorry, you’ll have to watch from here.”

“No, I’ve got to get closer.” She stretched up on her toes, trying to see over the people in front of her.

“No way.”

“I can stop this from happening!” she told him desperately, realising after the words left her mouth that they might sound like a threat instead of an offer to help. Luckily, he just pushed her back into the crowd instead of arresting her.

As the torch got closer, the pod started to chitter in Rose’s hand. “You felt it, didn’t you?” An idea came to her, and she backed out of the crowd, then whispered to the pod. “Feel the love.” She tossed it up as hard as she could, biting her lip anxiously as it flew through the air.

The pod was too small to see for very long, but when the torchbearer stumbled, Rose knew she’d hit her mark. “Yes!” she screamed, jumping in the air. “I did it!”

“You did it!” Kel said, catching her as she jumped again. “What was it you did?”

“Watch,” Rose said, pointing down the road. Children appeared out of nowhere, running straight into the arms of their ecstatic parents.

Her bond with the Doctor snapped back to full strength, and she knew he’d been restored as well. “Doctor.” His telepathic hug soothed her anxiety, but she still would have been happier if he’d shown up here, along with everyone else. _Trust the Doctor to have one more plan though._

Maeve grabbed her by the elbow, gratitude shining in her eyes. “I don’t know who you are, or what you did, but thank you, darling!” She pulled Rose close and kissed her on the cheek. “And thank that man for me too.”

“Where is he?” Rose wondered aloud, looking at the three children who had returned. “All the drawings have come to life.” A red glow in Chloe’s window caught her eye. “That means all of them. Oh, no.”

She ran back to the Webber house and pounded on the door. Trish was on the other side, tugging on the handle. “Trish, get out!”

“I can’t! The door’s stuck!”

Even through frosted glass, Rose could see the terror on Trish’s face. “Is the Doctor in there?” she asked, hoping against hope that this was the last thing he was taking care of before returning to her.

“I don’t think so.”

“Mummy,” Chloe cried.

Rose could hear the malicious voice of the version of her father Chloe had drawn. “Chloe, I’m coming to hurt you.”

“Please, Dad. No more,” the child begged.

“Chloe, listen to me,” Rose said through the door. “It isn’t real like the others. It’s just energy left over by the Isolus, but you can get rid of it.”

“Help us!” Trish begged.

Everything the Doctor had told her about the basis of the Isolus’ ionic energy ran through her memory, and she knew what the key was. “Oh, it’s because you’re so scared that he’s real. But you can get shot of him, Chloe.”

“Mummy!”

Rose pitched her voice as low and comforting as she could. “You can do it, Chloe!”

“I can’t!” she repeated over and over, and Rose could hear the menacing voice getting closer and closer. “Mummy.”

Trish dropped to the floor to sit with her daughter. Through the window, Rose saw the red glow moving down the stairs. “I’m with you, Chloe. You’re not alone. You’ll never be alone again.”

Frantically, Rose tried to remember what they’d done the last time this spectre of the past had risen. “Sing again! Chloe, sing!”

Over the father’s threats, she could barely hear the frightened voices of mother and daughter singing the Kookaburra song again. The red light faded and then disappeared as they began a second round of the chorus, and Rose sank to the ground, relieved it had worked.

Unexpectedly, tears sprang to her eyes, though none of them fell. The Doctor was fine, somewhere, but after having him taken from her, she needed to feel his hand in hers. That’s what he’d said—you need a hand to hold.

Kel walked over to her, and he must have seen her agitation on her face. “Maybe he’s gone somewhere.”

“Yeah,” she agreed. “I just wish he were here right now.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The Doctor zapped back into being at the same place he’d zapped out—in front of the TARDIS. He spun around to make sure his ship was there and grinned at the familiar blue. “Rose saves the day once again.”

The TARDIS’ hum felt as proud as he was, but when he started to walk away so he could join her, the ship buzzed an alarm in his head. “What is it, girl?” he asked, running a hand over her door.

Her light glowed brightly, then turned off. “A light? A light going out?” _The torchbearer._

The Doctor set off running along the torch’s path toward the Olympic stadium. Finally, he spotted the torchbearer ahead of him; he seemed to be stumbling a little bit.

A police officer tried to stop him from getting any closer, but he flashed the psychic paper. “Emergency torchbearer replacement,” he said, darting past the officer and picking the torch up just as the torchbearer collapsed.

The stadium was just ahead, and he ran inside holding the torch high. At the top of the stairs by the caldron, he turned around and cheered along with the crowd before lighting the gas. “Go on,” he told the Isolus. “Join your brothers and sisters. They’ll be waiting.”

The flame blazed, and then the gas in the main caldron lit and the large torch caught fire, drawing louder cheers from the crowd. But the Doctor was watching for something else, and he smiled when he saw a small dot of light fly out of the caldron, up into the sky.

That task taken care of, a different urgency took over. As soon as he could, he slipped out of the stadium and made his way back to Dame Kelly Holmes Close, looking for Rose. She’d seen him on the telly, he knew she had, but it had been too many hours since he’d seen her. Once again, he’d been reminded of how empty he’d been before he met her, and he needed the comfort of her hand in his.

He scanned the crowd of revellers in the street, looking for her bottle blonde hair. Then, behind him, he heard his favourite voice in the world. “Cake?” she offered.

He turned around and laughed when he saw her wide, relieved smile and the fairy cake she was offering. Biting into it enthusiastically, he moaned his appreciation when he crunched through the ball bearings. “Top banana. Mmm. I can’t stress this enough. Ball bearings you can eat, masterpiece!”

She laughed with him, then threw herself into his arms. He hugged her back, careful not to get icing in her hair. The relief coursed through them both, passing over their bond in a feedback loop that made him dizzy with the strength of it.

“I thought I’d lost you,” she told him.

He ran his hand down her back in a comforting gesture; he’d felt her fear when he’d first disappeared. “Nah. Not on a night like this. This is a night for lost things being found. Come on.” She put her hand through the crook of his arm, and they walked slowly down the street while he finished his cake.

“What now?” Rose asked.

The adrenaline rush was fading, and one thought stood out in his mind. “Now we watch the fireworks and then go back to the TARDIS and figure out what’s going on with you.”

Rose tensed.

“Whatever it is, Rose, we’ll handle it together.” He touched the bond as lightly as he could, and some of the tension eased out of her shoulders. 

“Right, together.” She smiled tentatively and rested her head on his shoulder.

He smiled and wrapped an arm around her while they watched the reds and blues of the fireworks explode across the sky.

“You know what?” Rose said. “They keep on trying to split us up, but they never ever will.”

The timeline he’d been sensing was closer now. He could almost see their inevitable separation, and he tightened his grip on her waist. “Never say never ever,” he told her quietly.

She shivered. “I felt that, Doctor. What is it?”

The Doctor focused on the fluctuations in their timeline. It almost felt like someone was purposely manipulating time around them, trying to force them apart. He frowned; not only was that a direct violation of the Laws of Time, it was also impossible for almost anyone but a Time Lord.

But still… “There’s something in the air. Something coming.”

“What?”

“A storm’s approaching.”

The celebratory mood was broken, and by mutual agreement, they walked back toward the TARDIS. Rose was silent the whole way, not saying anything until they were inside.

“It feels like something is… playing with our timelines,” she said once they were in the console room.

The Doctor adjusted the coordinates to send them back into the Vortex, then looked up at her. “What do you mean?”

“Well, there was something… something there, and then not there, and then there again. Like it couldn’t make up its mind about what was going to happen.”

Her succinct description drew a smile from him, despite the seriousness of the topic. “Something like that, I suppose. There’s still something trying to split us up, Rose. But it’s not a fixed point. There’s room… there’s flexibility.”

She fidgeted with the controls on the console. “Can’t we just—I don’t know, look at what’s going to happen and make sure we don’t go wherever it is?”

The Doctor shook his head. “I learned a long time ago that it doesn’t do any good to stare at your own timeline. You can’t usually catch more than a glimpse of it anyway.”

He drew in a deep breath. “I’m more interested in discovering what all these changes in you mean. Can we do that scan now?”

“Yeah,” Rose agreed, and they started down the corridor. “And speaking of the changes, I had a question about that actually. You had a whole list of questions… Do you know what’s happened to me?”

“All I have is a guess,” he told her. “A guess that can’t possibly be…” He clamped down on his hope as hard as he could.

Rose still felt it. “Doctor… do y’think that maybe I did more as Bad Wolf than just bring myself back from the dead?”

The Doctor swallowed hard. “That’s… it’s starting to look like that’s a distinct possibility.” They reached the infirmary, and he flipped the scanner on while Rose jumped up onto one of the tables. “How much have I told you about Time Lords and Gallifreyans?”

Her legs swung back and forth. “Um, not much,” she said, biting her lip. “Telepathic, time sensitive, two hearts, and ‘a superior biology,’” she added in air quotes.

When he didn’t feign indignation over her teasing, he felt her concern spike. “Right. All true, but that’s only where the differences between humans and Time Lords begin. You know about human DNA, right? Two strands in a double helix?”

Rose nodded.

“Lay down on the table for me, Rose.” She twisted her body around and stretched out on her back, her hands clasped over her stomach. The Doctor ran the sonic over her in multiple waves, still explaining as he worked.

“Time Lord genetics are a bit more complex. Our DNA is a triple helix instead of a double helix. That third strand that controls a lot of what makes us different—the binary vascular system, for instance, and respiratory bypass. Then, instead of RNA we have TNA. It fulfils basically the same function of controlling the expression of genes, but… well, it’s different.” He sent the information to the scanner and then helped Rose sit up.

“So,” she said slowly, “we’re checking my DNA? To see if it’s still just normal human DNA, or Time Lord DNA?”

The Doctor hopped up onto the table beside Rose. “That’s exactly what we’re doing.”

“And this TNA. Does that T stand for time? Like, the way your genetics are altered by time?”

“Yes, exactly!” A thought occurred to the Doctor, and he raised an eyebrow. “I think we missed a change, Rose,” he said quietly.

“What do you mean?”

“You’re…” He hesitated, trying to find a way to phrase what he was thinking that wouldn’t sound like an insult. “Well… You’re… You follow my science babble a lot faster than you used to.”

He watched her out of the corner of his eye, wary of her reaction. A furrow appeared in her forehead, and she said, “You mean like… knowing you meant you were going to tape over the Wire?”

“Exactly like that.”

“How would that have happened?”

“Well, the myth that humans only use 10% of their brain is a complete fallacy, but the brain is capable of more processing. It’s all about energy consumption—if your brain gets more energy in the form of glucose, you can think more quickly and about more complex thoughts. We already know your body is working more efficiently—that’s why you don’t need as much sleep—thus your brain is getting more energy.”

The scanner beeped, and the Doctor froze in place. As long as he didn’t look at the results, they could be anything—rather like Schrödinger’s cat. But once he looked…

Rose set her hand on his knee. “Doctor?”

He jerked out of his daze and put his glasses on. “Right. Let’s see what’s going on with you, Rose Tyler.”

He and Rose walked over to the monitor, and the Doctor turned it toward them so they could see the results. The Doctor slumped a little when he saw regular human DNA spinning slowly on the screen. He’d really thought… well, hoped…

“Still human then,” Rose said quietly, and he could feel her disappointment too.

He started to turn the scanner off, but the TARDIS prodded at him. _What else do you want me to do?_ he asked her crossly.

She projected an image of Rose, standing in front of her heart, taking in the Time Vortex. The Doctor sucked in a breath. He hadn’t even considered…

He turned on the temporal scanner, hoping against hope that his hunch was more than wishful thinking. The image on the screen flickered, and then a third strand appeared.

“What’s that mean, Doctor?” Rose asked.

The Doctor stared at the screen for a long moment, his mind working quickly to assimilate this into everything he knew about the first Time Lords. “Let’s look at the rest of the results first, and then I’ll explain it.”

Rose nodded, and together they scrolled through three pages of diagnostic information. It was all things they knew already—more efficient body, etc etc, able to go longer without taking a breath… He smirked as he remembered all the hands on proof he had of that.

But the last page held more surprises. “Your artron levels…” he murmured, looking at the number.

“Artron… that’s the background radiation time travellers pick up, right?”

He glanced over at her, and she grinned. “You explained it after Utah when I woke the Dalek up, remember?”

“Right. That I did.” The Doctor folded his glasses up and slipped them back into his jacket pocket. “Well, to be more specific than I was back then, artron energy is what allows the TARDIS to travel through the Vortex. When we’re in the Vortex, she gives off low levels of artron radiation. During the War, the Daleks learned to use the radiation as a power supply.”

“All right. So, from your reaction, I’m guessing my levels are higher than you’d expect in a human travelling with you.”

He nodded. “Significantly higher. These levels are equivalent to what would be found in a Time Lord.”

Rose bit her lip. “That’s left over from Bad Wolf, isn’t it?”

“Most likely. And the human body isn’t made to withstand that much artron radiation, so I’d be very, very concerned about it, except…”

He scrolled back down to the bottom of the page. _Rate of cellular degeneration: too slow to be measured._

“What does that mean?” Rose asked. “Does it have anything to do with that extra strand of DNA?”

The three revelations all wove together, and the Doctor couldn’t decide what the best starting point would be.

“Right,” he said finally. “When I said earlier that Time Lords have a triple helix DNA, that wasn’t strictly correct. It was accurate for  _Gallifreyans_ , but Time Lords actually have a fourth strand, one that doesn’t show up unless the scanner is temporally aligned.”

Rose nodded, but then she frowned and shook her head. “Yeah, I don’t know what that means. What’s that fourth strand do?”

He scratched at the back of his neck. “Welllllll, that was under some debate before the War. We knew what it did in the most general sense, but figuring out exactly what that means…”

He ran his hand through his hair as the thoughts going through his mind spiralled out of control. He _did_ know one thing the fourth strand of DNA did, and that meant… maybe…

Rose put a hand on his shoulder, and with the slightest pressure, he turned to face her. “Tell me what you know then.”

The Doctor took a deep breath to calm himself. “Right. That’s what connects us to time and the Time Vortex. How it works, we’re not sure. Does it connect us via our TARDIS? Maybe. Or maybe it was something that happened when we were given our symbiotic nuclei.”

“Your what?”

He shook his head. “Sorry, that’s not really important right now. What _is_ important is that you, Rose Tyler, have that fourth strand of DNA—only since you’re human, it’s a third strand.”

Rose stared at the screen. “So when I looked into the Vortex…”

“Apparently, the Vortex looked back into you.”

Rose glanced at the screen, and then back at him. “I’ve got lots more questions, Doctor, but could we go someplace with chairs? And maybe tea?”

“Oh, right! Sorry.” The Doctor switched the scanner off, making sure the TARDIS saved the new images to Rose’s file. Then he took her hand and they walked to the galley.

Rose’s mind was whirling while she put the kettle on and prepared the tea. The Doctor fairly buzzed with excitement, and she knew that whatever had happened, he thought it was good. But she didn’t understand it yet, and it was just a lot…

She jumped a bit when his hands rested on her shoulders. “Together, remember?”

Rose nodded, and her hands were steady as she poured tea into the waiting cups. She handed him the one with extra sugar and sat down across from him at the table.

He pouted slightly, and she shook her head. “I want to be able to see your face as you explain all this to me,” she explained.

“Oh. Of course.” He took a sip of his tea. “You said you had questions. Where would you like me to start, Rose?”

She bit her lip, trying to get her thoughts in order. “So you said no one was quite sure what this extra DNA bit meant, yeah? Then why are you so excited I have it? Seems you must know something at least.”

The Doctor smiled, and the corners of his eyes crinkled up. “You always ask the right questions,” he said. He put his elbows on the table and leaned toward her. “In a Time Lord, that fourth strand appeared when we were given our symbiotic nuclei.”

Rose lifted a hand. “Doctor, you’ve gotta… you keep forgetting that I don’t understand all these things you’re talking about.”

He leaned back in his chair and sighed. “You know Time Lord is more of a class designation than species, right?”

Rose nodded.

“There was enough genetic difference—obviously, given that fourth strand of genetic material—for us to be considered a subspecies, but until a Novice passed the final exam and received the rank of Junior Time Lord, they were essentially identical to regular Gallifreyans, genetically. Upon leaving the Academy, a Gallifreyan would receive symbiotic nuclei. That’s what made us Time Lords.”

She took a sip of her tea while she let some of the information the Doctor had given settle into her mind. “Right, and that’s when you got the fourth strand of DNA. You’re talking in circles, Doctor. What does the fourth strand, or the symbiotic nuclei, what does it _do_?”

“The symbiotic nuclei are what allow a Time Lord to bond to a TARDIS. And… the connection to the Vortex… that’s how…” He blew out a puff of air. “Regeneration, Rose. The biological connection to Time is what made regeneration possible.”

Rose’s cup slipped through suddenly nerveless fingers, and the Doctor barely caught it before it hit the table. He set it down and took her hand, and Rose looked at him. “I can regenerate?”

“There’s only one way to know for sure, and I’d rather not test it out. But yes, I think you can, even though you’re connected to Time differently than I am.”

“The artron levels…” She gnawed on her lip, trying to put together everything the Doctor had said. “They come from the Vortex.”

“Yes.”

“And this fourth strand, it connects me to the Vortex?”

“Yes.”

“So… basically, those two go together, yeah? Couldn’t have one without the other?”

The Doctor beamed. “Exactly, Rose.”

“And cellular degeneration… that means I’m not ageing, doesn’t it?” The Doctor nodded. “So… does this mean I’ll live as long as you will?”

The Doctor dropped her hand and didn’t meet her eyes. Over their bond, she felt his sudden uncertainty.

“You… you promised forever,” he said quietly. “Do you want to change your mind now that you know forever will last longer than you’d expected?”

“What?” Rose blinked. “No, that’s—why would you even think that?”

The Doctor ran his finger over the handle of his cup. “Well… you didn’t know this when we formed our provisional bond. It’s a totally different situation than what you were expecting. I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t want…” He looked away. “Spending six hundred years with me in your head is a lot different than sixty.”

 _Six hundred!_ Rose’s head swam at the thought, then she realised what the Doctor was saying. She narrowed her eyes. _Didn’t you feel it, when I promised you forever?_ She focused on how that word had felt and passed the memory back to him.

The Doctor gulped. _The timelines…_

_I might not have known how long forever would be, but that promise was binding. It was right._

He smiled at her, but Rose still saw a hint of fear in his eyes. She moved around the table to sit in his lap, smiling when his arms automatically went around her waist. “I love you,” she whispered, leaning forward to press a kiss to his lips.

The Doctor wanted to repeat the words back to her, but he couldn’t bring himself to break away from her soft kiss. He smiled against her lips when he remembered he had another way to let her know how he felt.

He felt for their bond and brushed against it, returning the same tender affection she was showing him physically. Rose sighed and wrapped her arms around his neck, and the Doctor’s hands moved up her back, holding her close.

A moment later, he was nearly knocked to the ground by the flood of love she sent back to him. Along with the emotion, he caught several glimpses of the very human way she wanted to show him that love. In a heartbeat, their mental connection shifted from affectionate to passionate as they touched parts of each other’s minds that were designed solely to bring pleasure.

The Doctor growled, and his hand shifted down to the curve of her bum so he could pull Rose closer. The jolt of physical pleasure he felt when she rubbed against his erection pulled him out of the mental daze. The rational side of his mind exerted itself, no matter how hard he tried to shut it up, and he eased out of the connection with Rose just enough to listen to it.

Rose felt his withdrawal and tried to chase after him, to draw him back, but the moment of clarity had been long enough to remind him that he didn’t want to take Rose on the kitchen table. He wanted her—oh, how he wanted her—but he had plans.

He slowly pulled back from Rose, both physically and mentally. When he opened his eyes, he realised they were both panting for air, despite their respective abilities. He pressed his forehead to hers as he tried to regain some control.

Rose tilted her head and tried to kiss him again, but the Doctor pulled back. “Doctor,” she whined, and the need he heard in her voice tempted him to discard all his ideas and just carry her to his bedroom.

Somehow, he resisted the urge. “I know, love,” he said hoarsely, brushing his lips over her forehead. “Tomorrow, I promise. I have a very specific seduction plan lined out.”

“No need to seduce me, Doctor,” she said huskily. “I’m already yours.”

He shifted back in his chair to put some space between them. “And I’m yours, but… indulge me?” he requested.

Some of the passion had cleared from Rose’s eyes, and she nodded. “Tomorrow.”


	32. Chapter 32

The next morning after breakfast, the Doctor waited anxiously in the console room while Rose got dressed. He started to set the coordinates, but hesitated. Barcelona wasn’t a renowned romantic destination, like Paris or Venice. It was more like Hawaii—a place where the natural beauty provided an atmosphere conducive to romance.

He’d wanted to take Rose there long before he’d been willing to face what they had—what they were—but maybe for this trip, they should go someplace more overtly romantic.

Rose walked into the console room in the middle of his musings, and he took in her appearance: turquoise sundress, blonde hair brushing against her bare shoulders, and white flimsy sandals. Time Lords weren’t, by nature, responsive to visual stimuli, but from the first time he’d seen her in that Victorian gown, Rose had proven to be the exception to that rule.

“You wouldn’t tell me where we’re going,” Rose said with a raised eyebrow, “so I asked the TARDIS what I should wear.”

The Doctor started to answer, but then what she said hit him, and he laughed.

“What’s so funny, Doctor?” Rose put her hands on her hips. “Is there something wrong with what I’m wearing?”

He shook his head. “No, the TARDIS was absolutely right. I’ve just figured out why we had an empathic connection.”

Rose tilted her head. “I thought it was because she’s keeping me from getting headaches.”

“That was more like a secondary advantage.” The Doctor rocked back on his heels, feeling extraordinarily pleased with himself for figuring this out. “When you were Bad Wolf, you must have bonded to the TARDIS in the same way a pilot would. Part of the purpose of the symbiotic nuclei was to form the connection between TARDIS and Time Lord, after all.”

Rose ran her hand over a strut. “I’m bonded to the TARDIS like you are?”

The Doctor nodded. “Maybe even closer, since the two of you were actually one. So when the TARDIS—who’s been keeping this very safely under wraps, by the way—when she agreed with our analogy of the three-way conference call, that was quite literally the truth. I’ve never known of a situation where two Time Lords have bonded to the same TARDIS.”

“Does that mean…” Rose bit her lip. “Do you think I could fly her? Like, actually, properly fly her?”

The TARDIS hummed encouragingly.

_I think she’s been waiting for you to fly her._

_Can I…_ Rose took a step forward and touched the console. _Could we try now?_

The Doctor smiled. The woman he loved, piloting the ship he loved, to the place where he planned to make love to her. _Oh yes._

He took Rose by the hand and led her to the navigation panel. The Doctor stood behind her and used their bond to direct her to the controls representing the ship’s location in time and space. Together, they set the coordinates for a tropical resort on the planet Barcelona in the year 4358.

Then Rose moved to the gravitic anomaliser and the Doctor took the helmic regulator. This was the part Rose had helped with before, though never with the full bond to the TARDIS flowing through her. They turned the wheels and threw the levers in perfect harmony, their own bond making the routine effortless. With a final flourish, Rose released the hand brake, and the loud wheezing sound of the TARDIS in flight filled the console room.

Rose’s exultation was nearly overwhelming. “I did it!”

The Doctor caught her in his arms and pressed a hard kiss to her lips. “You did,” he said.

A few seconds later, they felt a gentle thud. “Was that it?” the Doctor said, looking around the console room. “Why’d she land so lightly for you?”

“Maybe because I’ve never performed percussive maintenance on her,” Rose suggested, grinning at him with her tongue peeking out.

The TARDIS hummed in agreement, drawing a laugh from Rose and a huff of exasperation from the Doctor. “Well I wouldn’t have to, if you’d just do what I ask,” he muttered. Rose rolled her eyes, but neither she nor the TARDIS commented.

He pouted for a moment, then smiled down at Rose. “Want to open the doors and see where we are?”

Rose took a step toward the door, then looked back at the Doctor, who was leaning against the console. She still loved to visit alien worlds, but it wasn’t a new feeling. Stepping out onto a world she’d taken them to, that was different and almost scary.

 _Go on,_ the Doctor encouraged her, and she smiled and skipped toward the doors.

Bright sunlight poured into the TARDIS, and Rose shielded her eyes as she stepped outside. She waited for her eyes to adjust, then took in her first landing. It wasn’t what she’d expected.

She turned and looked at the Doctor, who still looked pleased as punch. “Warehouses, Doctor? You take me to the nicest places.”

“Warehouses?” he spluttered. He turned to check the coordinates they’d set. “We’re supposed to be on Barcelona!”

Rose leaned against the door and watched him check another panel. His shoulders slumped. “Oh, that’s not right at all. She’s brought us to Woolwich.”

Rose blinked. “Woolwich the planet, or…”

His lip protruded in a pout. “Woolwich.”

“Well, she must have a reason. You know she never takes us off course without a reason.” Something pulled at Rose’s memory, and she grasped onto it. “Hang on, didn’t Elton say he’d met us in Woolwich? Check the date, Doctor.”

He glanced down, and his eyebrows rose. “Only a few weeks before we met Elton,” he confirmed.

“So we are supposed to be here,” Rose said. “Let’s figure out why.”

The Doctor heaved a sigh and let his ship know he didn’t appreciate the timing, but he still started a scan. Rose was right—every time they went off course, there was a reason.

When the results flashed on the screen, he grudgingly admitted that maybe— _maybe_ —she’d been right to bring them here first.

“So, are you gonna tell me what exactly we’re looking for in the exotic Woolwich?”

“A Hoix: nasty things, they basically live to eat, and nothing’s off the menu.”

Rose wrinkled her nose. “And only a few miles from my mum? Let’s take care of it then. You do know how to take care of it?”

The Doctor nodded. “I’ve got the ingredients in my workroom to create a chemical solution that should knock it out long enough for UNIT to come take care of it.”

Rose looked down at her dress and sighed. “I’ll go change into alien chasing clothes while you get what you need.”

The Doctor tugged on his ear. “Rose…” He paused helplessly in the middle of his sentence.

She smiled at him. “It’s okay, Doctor. This is what we do. I just don’t want to risk ruining this dress.”

His eyes wandered up and down her body—visually stimulated or not, she looked lovely. “I can agree with that. Just promise me you’ll wear it again later.”

Her smile turned slightly wicked. “Count on it.”

The Doctor heaved a sigh of frustration as he went to the galley. He’d meant today to be special for them, and instead, he was once again saving London from aliens. _You’re a time ship. You couldn’t have brought us here after Barcelona?_ he asked as he pulled a chop from the freezer and wrapped it in cellophane and foil.

Her response was apologetic, but also… The Doctor stopped rummaging through the cabinets and cocked his head. “Ah,” he mumbled when he finally placed the emotion as embarrassment. “Right. Well… I appreciate that you didn’t want to… interrupt us.”

He was a little relieved when he reached his workroom and had something to do to distract him from the idea of his sentient ship being aware of his plans for this trip. There were two chemicals he needed to create the anti-Hoix solution, and he should have both of them in here… somewhere. He located one easily and poured it into a conveniently empty blue bucket.

“Got everything?”

The Doctor glanced toward the door, but his answer died on his lips when he took in what Rose was wearing. Jeans, a plaid shirt, and a denim jacket shouldn’t look so sexy, but the shirt was unbuttoned far enough to show more than a hint of cleavage, and his gaze lingered there.

After a few… well, more than a few moments, he registered Rose’s pleased amusement and he turned back to the cabinet he was digging through to hide his red face.

“Almost, if I could just find…” He finally spotted the second ingredient all the way in the back and reached for it. He carefully poured it into the red, non-corrodible bucket on his workbench, then grabbed both the blue and red buckets and smiled brightly at Rose. “All set!”

Rose walked a half step in front of him down the corridor, her head turned a bit so they could talk. “So what’s the plan then, Doctor?”

“Well, the Hoix aren’t the most intelligent race in the universe. They’re easy to trick, and luckily, easily aggravated by high pitched frequencies.”

They stepped out into the sunlight and walked to the closest warehouse. Rose opened one of the blue metal doors and they jogged down the metal stairs. The Doctor ducked through a door on the left, and Rose realised that all the separate doors on the outside opened into one long building.

Rose followed the Doctor and found him setting both buckets down on a rickety metal table. “So, high pitched frequencies?” she reminded him.

“Right.” He pulled the sonic out of his pocket and adjusted the settings. “I’ll get the solution ready while you—from a safe place, mind—lure the Hoix here with this.”

Rose took the sonic and twirled it around her fingers. “And then what?”

“Then I’ll distract him with a piece of meat long enough for you to dump the solution over his head.”

She nodded. _Okay,_ she said. _I’ll go hide under the stairs, and you tell me when you’re ready._

The Doctor pressed a quick kiss to Rose’s lips and then busied himself with carefully pouring the exact amount of ammonia into the red bucket. Too much of it would only antagonise the Hoix further.

When he was done, he reached into his pocket for the chop. He retreated further into the warehouse, toward a heavy door he’d noticed earlier.

 _Ready, Rose._ He felt her acknowledgement and knew she’d activated the sonic.

The Doctor bounced a little on the balls of his feet, anxious to stop the alien of the week and get back to his own plans.

The roar of the Hoix interrupted his thoughts. _He’s coming your way, Doctor,_ Rose said, telling him what he already knew.

The Doctor’s body tensed as he prepared to evade the Hoix until Rose showed up with the solution. _Right, get the bucket._

_Which one?_

The Hoix found the Doctor and swiped at the chop. The Doctor dodged him and dangled it in the air.

_Which bucket, Doctor?_

The door at the top of the stairs opened, and the Doctor spun around to see Elton. _Not blue,_ he told Rose, distracted by the thought that now he had another person to keep safe.

The Hoix looked at Elton with some interest, so the Doctor waved the chop at it. “Here, boy. Eat the food. Come on, look at the lovely food.” The monster slowly turned. “Isn’t that nice? Isn’t it? Yes, it is.”

When the alien’s attention was focused on him again, the Doctor glanced at Elton. “Get out of here, quickly.”

The Hoix lumbered forward, and he danced out of reach. “That’s a boy. Wouldn’t you like a porky-choppy then?”

Elton hadn’t moved, and the Doctor glared at him over the Hoix’s shoulder. “I said run!”

He finally ran for the stairs just as Rose appeared with a bucket. The Doctor barely had time to register the colour—blue—before she dumped the contents over the alien’s head.

The Hoix roared in anger, and the Doctor grabbed Rose’s hand and yanked her back to the hallway. “Wrong one,” he panted as they darted through doorways. “You made it worse.”

“You said blue,” she protested.

“I said _not_ blue.”

Rose pulled her hand from him and they ran in opposite directions, her to get the bucket— _The not blue one_ , she told him sardonically—and him to keep the Hoix distracted.

The Doctor noticed Elton watching from the top of the stairs, but he didn’t have time to order the young man away again. If he wanted to stay and put his life at risk, that was his business.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Rose reappear, the red bucket in hand. She threw it over the Hoix, who took a few more steps, stopped, and then suddenly collapsed.

Elton had disappeared again, and the Doctor shrugged. He’d seen exactly what he’d said he’d seen: him and Rose in a warehouse with a nasty roaring alien.

Rose looked at the alien at their feet, then up at him. “Now what?”

He held out his hand. “Phone,” he requested, and when she’d given it to him, he dialled a number he hadn’t called in years. His personal security clearance was still active though—he sent a silent thanks to Alistair—and UNIT promised to take care of clean up.

Rose took the phone from him and tucked it back into her pocket. “So that closes the loop with Elton,” she said.

The Doctor took her hand and they walked back to the TARDIS. “Yep,” he said.

A shot of anticipation ran through Rose’s body, and she couldn’t tell if it had come from her or the Doctor. When they stepped inside the TARDIS, her gaze fell on the console. Unbidden, several fantasies she’d had flashed through her mind.

The Doctor’s hand tightened around hers, and he pulled her forward until he had her pressed against the console. He shrugged his coat off and tossed it onto the jump seat, then leaned forward to whisper in her ear. “I think I’m going to enjoy seeing what you’ve imagined us doing.”

Rose shivered and tilted her head, and the Doctor trailed kisses along her jawline until he reached her mouth. His lips hovered over hers, and they looked at each other through half-lidded eyes while their breath mingled.

Then his lips crashed down onto hers, his tongue plundering her open mouth. Rose wrapped her arms around his waist and moaned into the kiss, gasping when his hands slipped under her shirt and his cool fingers traced light patterns over her ribs.

His smug satisfaction was projected clearly over their bond. _I bet I can make you gasp too, Doctor._

_You’re welcome to try._

Rose cradled his face between her hands and gentled the kiss, tugging his bottom lip with her as she pulled back, until she finally released it with a light pop. She then covered his face with soft kisses to hide her intent. When his breathing started to slow, she darted down to his where his neck and jaw met and sucked hard. He moaned and rocked against her, and she smiled victoriously while she laved at the spot with her tongue.

“That wasn’t a gasp,” he said, his voice hoarse.

She lifted her mouth from his neck just long enough to say, “The night’s still young, my Doctor.” Then she grazed the spot lightly with her teeth before sucking again, pulling a groan from him.

Rose’s hands glided slowly down his chest until she reached the buttons on his jacket. She undid them quickly and shoved his jacket off his shoulders down to his elbows, then he caught it and tossed it onto the jump seat with his coat. Her deft fingers attacked his tie next, undoing the knot but leaving it hanging around his neck. With the extra access, she slipped one hand up to scratch through the short hairs at the back of his neck. The other hand started undoing the buttons on his shirt until there was enough of an opening to reach in and touch his skin.

The Doctor growled low in his throat and reclaimed her lips, and the hands that had been on her waist dropped to her bum. _Jump,_ he said, and with his help, Rose hopped up onto the console. He stepped between her parted legs and pulled her tight against him, and Rose whimpered when she felt his erection press into her.

She leaned back on her hands when his mouth moved from her lips down her throat. His fingers started unbuttoning her shirt, and she swallowed another gasp when she realised what his intent was.

_So many buttons undone already, Rose. Is this what you had in mind when you changed?_

Before Rose could tell him that yes, it was definitely what she’d had in mind, the room was filled with the sound of an old-fashioned alarm clock buzzing loudly. The Doctor raised his head from her clavicle and blinked a few times, then he started laughing.

“I don’t think the old girl approves of these activities in her console room,” he said.

He stepped back and Rose jumped down to the grating. “And besides, we have reservations at the most exclusive resort on Barcelona.” He shot Rose a smouldering look. “I believe you, Rose Tyler, promised to put that sundress back on.”

But after that snog, Rose had no intention of waiting any longer—even if it was just an hour while they packed and checked into a hotel. She shook her head slightly and started walking backward toward the corridor, keeping eye contact with the Doctor.

With his tie undone and his dark blue shirt unbuttoned halfway down his chest, he looked deliciously rumpled. Rose smiled, then reached for their bond and touched a spot in his mind she’d discovered got a particularly strong reaction as she finished unbuttoning her own shirt.

His eyes darkened, and he rocked forward as if to reach for her, but then dropped his hand back to his side. “Rose?”

Her name came out as a croak, and she took off the jacket and shirt in one move. _Take us into the Vortex, Doctor, and then take me to bed._

He moved jerkily to do her bidding, but she could still feel his confusion. _Barcelona_ … he started as the TARDIS entered the Vortex.

 _Will wait. I don’t need a fancy hotel or flowers every morning. I just need you._ The time rotor chugged up and down, and Rose dropped her clothes to the grating. _Take me to your room and make love to me._

Her explicit request broke through the last of his reserve. Before Rose could even blink, he had her in his arms and was carrying her down the corridor. “How’d you move so quickly?” she asked as she untucked his shirt from the waistband of his trousers.

“Time Lord trick,” he told her. “Pause the flow of time around you so you can move in an instant.”

Rose slid a hand under his shirt, enjoying the shudder she felt run through him. “Any other Time Lord tricks I should know about?”

The look he gave her was pure sin. “Oh, just you wait, Rose Tyler. Just you wait.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally! The UST is resolved. And--since I know everyone's nervous--there's one chapter left before Doomsday.


	33. Chapter 33

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the Doctor and Rose run into some cultural differences...
> 
> If you'd like to see more of their time in Barcelona, check out [this](http://archiveofourown.org/works/4652277/chapters/10612272) and [this](http://archiveofourown.org/works/4652277/chapters/11124422).

They made it to Barcelona… eventually. Rose immediately fell in love with the tropical paradise and the iconic noseless dogs. For a week, she and the Doctor spent their days exploring the waterfalls and lagoons, and their nights enjoying their newfound intimacy—both physical and telepathic.

On the eighth day, Rose woke up to an empty bed. She frowned; the Doctor had stayed with her every night since they’d first made love.

“I’m over here,” he said quietly. Rolling over, Rose spotted him standing by the window. Restlessness was written in every line of his body; it didn’t take a telepathic bond to know he was ready to leave.

Rose sat up and stretched, letting the sheet fall to her waist. “If you pack while I shower, we can be ready to leave in less than an hour.”

The Doctor turned around, a furrow between his brows. “This trip is supposed to be for us,” he protested.

She slid out of bed, enjoying the way his eyes wandered over her body. “Exactly,” she said as she took two slices of fruit from the breakfast tray. Rose took a bite of one, enjoying the tangy, mango-like flavour. She held the other up, and the Doctor opened his mouth automatically, nipping at her fingers as he took the fruit.

In the intimacy of the moment, Rose lost her train of thought. The Doctor’s left eyebrow quirked up, and he asked, “Exactly… what?”

“Hmmm? Oh!” She wrapped an arm around his waist. “This trip is for _us_ , and if you’re ready to go, then it’s no longer _us_ wanting to be here.”

“Are you sure you’re ready to leave this behind?” he asked.

Rose drank in their ocean view one more time. The resort was situated halfway up a series of cliffs overlooking the water, and with the window open, they could hear the waves crashing against the rocks fifty feet below. To their right, the cliffs continued to climb, the flora becoming more jungle-like the higher you went.

It was beautiful but… “We can always come back,” Rose said simply. She pressed a kiss to his cheek, then walked to the loo. She felt him contemplating joining her and playfully nudged him over their bond. _Pack._

Rose sighed when the hot water hit her skin at just the right pressure. Everything about Barcelona had been as perfect as she’d expected. She could easily stay here for weeks, just hiking and shopping and enjoying the natural beauty. But she’d visited enough of the universe to know there were other wonders out there to be seen, so leaving wasn’t as hard as the Doctor thought it was.

She squeezed strawberry shampoo into her hand, and noted absently as she set the bottle down that it was almost empty. _Better go home for a Tesco run before traipsing off to another planet,_ she thought as she washed her hair. _‘Sides, I oughta tell Mum…_

Rose’s hands stopped mid-shampoo and dropped to her sides. Suds slowly trickled down her forehead, but she was oblivious to them until they dripped in her eyes.

“Ouch!” she muttered, and turned around to rinse out the shampoo.

But the realisation she’d just come to wouldn’t float down the drain like the frothy suds. She felt the Doctor’s concern at her sudden shift in mood, and, not wanting him to come into the bathroom to find out what was wrong, she drew in a breath and shoved aside the ramifications of her extended lifespan.

The Doctor met her with a raised eyebrow, but Rose picked up her bag and smiled brightly. “Are we ready to go? Suddenly I want to be at home.”

Checking out was simply a matter of turning in their key cards, and fifteen minutes later, they were crossing the threshold of the TARDIS. “Want to tell me what’s bothering you?” the Doctor asked quietly.

Rose flashed him a smile. “I’m fine,” she said.

To her surprise, hurt pulsed across the bond. “Don’t lie to me, Rose,” he said in a low voice. “I’ve mastered the fake smile and blithe ‘I’m fine;’ that trick would never fool me. Plus everything here,” he tapped the side of his head, “says you’re not fine.”

Rose gaped at him, embarrassed at being caught out and yet still unable to tell him what was wrong.

He swallowed and looked away from her, and the light from the time rotor threw his profile into shadows. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, but please, don’t lie.”

The sight of his slumped shoulders pushed Rose into action. She crossed the distance between them and took his hand, waiting for him to turn back to face her. When she could look into his eyes, she said, “I’m sorry, Doctor. I just need some time to think it through before I talk about it, all right?”

He relaxed a little and nodded.

Rose looked down at the dimensionally transcendent suitcase he still held in his other hand. “Why don’t you take that to our room and unpack, and I’ll go to the study and try to work this out. I’ll meet you in the galley for tea.”

His smile was small, but genuine. “All right. And if you need me before that…”

She smiled. “I’ll let you know.” He nodded again, and Rose walked around the centre console to the corridor that led to the study.

Rose’s hands twitched at her sides as she walked. The Doctor’s deep hurt when she’d tried to fob him off shook her. She couldn’t filter through everything he was thinking, but for a second, she’d thought… it seemed like he was doubting that she’d be able to cope with the complete intimacy of the marriage bond, if she couldn’t handle what they already had.

She pinched the bridge of her nose; obviously she’d done something wrong, but she couldn’t fix whatever it was until she talked to the Doctor. With a practiced move, she shoved that problem to the back of her mind and focused on the one she was trying to find an answer for.

There was a fire in the fireplace when she entered the study, and a pot of tea on the small table in between the chairs. The TARDIS’ hum seemed both concerned and reassuring, and Rose smiled a bit as she poured herself a cuppa and sat down in her chair.

She took a sip of her tea, letting the familiar warmth calm her. Why hadn’t it occurred to her before that she’d outlive her mother by centuries?

Suddenly, she had a greater understanding of the Doctor’s seemingly callous abandonment of his friends. As long as he left them behind—left them and never came back—he could pretend they were still alive, even if hundreds of years had passed since he’d seen them. He had the TARDIS; he could always hop back for a visit. _As long as he left them behind._

Rose remembered a fraught conversation outside a cafe where she’d asked the Doctor if he would do that to her one day. With her new insight, she could see the love in the words, “No. Not to you.” He might have been terrified to lose her, but he loved her too much to leave her behind.

“Right, well I’m not gonna leave my mum behind either,” Rose muttered. She curled her legs up under herself in the chair and looked at the facts. Her mum was forty, with hopefully a good forty years ahead of her. Rose was… twenty-two-ish, with hundreds of years left.

She blinked back tears. The answer was obvious, but even if she and the Doctor spaced out their visits with two years between them on their side and a few months on her mum’s, Rose would still live hundreds of years longer than her mum.

Rose’s head dropped against the back of the chair and she considered all the options while staring at the dark blue ceiling. None of them appealed: do what the Doctor always did and just leave, continue on as they were now and lose her mum in a relatively short amount of time, or start spacing visits and phone calls out more to stretch the time they had together.

She pondered it for almost two hours, with only a headache to show for her work. Suddenly she wished the Doctor were there, just as strongly as she had desired solitude earlier. She bit her lip. After hurting him like she had, she didn’t feel like she could ask him to come.

He came anyway, his head poking in through the door. “Felt like maybe you wanted me,” he said, and she hated the tentative note in his voice.

Rose held out a hand, and he scooted his chair over so their linked hands could hang comfortably between them.

They sat in silence for a bit while Rose worked up the courage to put her painful realisation into words. “Can we go see Mum?” she asked finally.

There was another long pause, and Rose smiled a little when she felt him mentally regroup. “That was not what I expected you to say.”

The invitation to explain was clear. Rose drew in a deep breath and willed herself to say the words out loud. “I’ve been working on this… trying to fudge the maths, make them give me an answer I like better, but… I’m gonna outlive her, by a long time.”

The Doctor’s sudden understanding and compassion brought tears to her eyes. “I want to stretch out the time we have left, make it last as long as possible. Because—” She wiped the tears away. “Because once we know she’s dead, we can’t go back, can we?”

She felt his automatic agreement, but he didn’t answer right away. For a moment, she held out hope that he’d find a way around this, but finally, he shook his head. “Not without taking more risks than I’m comfortable with. We’d be crossing our own timelines then, and that’s never a good idea.”

“S’what I thought.” She traced a finger over the pattern in the upholstery and swallowed back more tears. “So. No more than once every two years… maybe longer sometimes. But I need to go back first, see her… maybe explain what’s happened.”

The Doctor squeezed her hand. “All right, if you want to visit Jackie, we can go to London.” He pressed his tongue to the back of his teeth, and Rose wondered what he was thinking. “I don’t know if you need to go two years between visits, Rose.”

Rose sat up straighter. “What do you mean?”

“Well, if we promised to spend every Sunday evening with Jackie, monthly visits would quadruple your time with her. Stretch that out to three months, and you’re looking at another 480 years with her.”

“An’ you’d be willing to have tea every Sunday with my mum?”

He grinned. “Well, it wouldn’t be every week for us, would it?”

The Doctor’s earlier hurt still lingered in the back of his mind when their laughter faded away, and Rose moved to the floor in front of him so she could see his face. “I’m sorry if… I wasn’t trying to shut you out before,” she said quietly.

His fingers tapped a quick staccato rhythm against the arm of his chair. “That’s not why I was upset.”

Rose ran a hand through her hair, then rubbed at the back of her neck. “Then why?”

The muscle in the Doctor’s jaw twitched, and Rose started to feel like she’d made a much bigger blunder than she’d thought.

“On Gallifrey…” He swallowed, and the knot in Rose’s stomach tightened. “There was a rule… it was just understood… Lying to your bond mate just wasn’t done. It was like a slap in the face, because with a bond, a lie would be so… obvious. It was seen as a flagrant disregard for the bond.”

Rose’s first instinct was to protest that she hadn’t known, that he should have told her that, but she forced it back. She’d obviously hurt him, whether she’d been aware of this social custom or not. (And her conscience nagged at her, saying she’d known it was wrong, even if she hadn’t been aware of the cultural taboo.)

“Doctor, I am so, so sorry. I never meant… I didn’t know…” Her voice trailed off.

He closed his eyes. “I know you didn’t, Rose. But that wasn’t the only reason it hurt. You didn’t… You tried to brush me off without even considering that I would know you weren’t fine. It was like you forgot about our bond completely.”

The same doubt she’d felt earlier washed over her, but this time it was stronger. Rose went up on her knees and grabbed his hand. “Doctor, no!” She floundered for words that would bridge this culture gap. “I knew you could tell I was upset—I felt you asking when I was in the shower.”

He looked at her again, his brows drawn together. “Then why did you…?”

“I just needed to work though my thoughts before I talked to you. I swear, that’s all I meant.” Rose held his gaze for a long moment, and finally, she felt his uncertainty recede.

Her instincts told her to sink into their bond and let him feel her regret and love, but first she wanted to find some middle ground on this particular cultural difference. “Could we… Maybe, ‘I’m all right,’ could be like, a code word?”

“For ‘I’m really not all right at all?’”

“But I’m not ready to talk about it yet.”

The first smile she’d seen from the Doctor since they left Barcelona crept over his face. “That’s an acceptable compromise,” he agreed. He looked down at her. “Can I hold you now?”

Rose stood up and let him pull her into his lap. He wrapped his arms around her and held her close, and they both sighed at the contact.

With a choked sob of relief, Rose raised her hand to his temple. She looked for permission, and when he nodded, she made contact and slipped into his mind. The Doctor met her, and she embraced him, letting him feel how much she loved him. _I am so sorry. Our bond means everything to me; I’d never forget it._

The Doctor let Rose apologise and comfort him. Her words had felt like a physical blow, and he needed this reassurance that she loved him and wanted to be with him.

Lost in their telepathic connection, neither paid attention to the passage of time, until Rose’s stomach growled. They resurfaced then and were startled to discover four hours had gone by.

“I think you said something about tea earlier?” the Doctor suggested, and Rose hopped off his lap.

They worked together to prepare a risotto, and soon the galley was filled with the aromas of simmering broth and sautéed onions. Rose took a bottle of white wine out of the fridge and decanted it while dinner cooked.

The Doctor focused on not burning dinner, but out of the corner of his eye, he saw Rose lean against the counter and look at him. With her attention on him, and in such close proximity, it was easy to pick up the gist of what she was thinking. He enjoyed the closeness for a moment, but then a word floated through her mind that he had to object to.

“Oi!” he said, glancing up at her. “I caught that. I do not look _domestic_.”

“Oh, but you do,” Rose teased. “The perfect little…” She tilted her head and looked at him, and the Doctor waited for her question. “Y’know, I never asked. What did your people call significant others? I told one of the shopkeepers that you were my partner, but is there a better term?”

The Doctor added liquid to the risotto so it wouldn’t burn, then turned to face Rose. “I told you what we called our partners.”

“Bond mates?” Rose asked softly.

He nodded. “But maybe we could just use that when we’re alone, and use human terms otherwise. Partner, or fiancé… and then husband and wife.”

Rose grinned. “Yeah. Yeah, I like that. Fiancé then.” Her gaze shifted, and she said, “But I think you should stir the risotto.”

The faintest hint of scorched broth reached the Doctor’s nose, and he whirled back to the stove.

Once they were sitting down to eat, the Doctor asked a question that had occurred to him when they’d been talking about Jackie. “So, what are you going to tell your mum?”

Rose sighed. “It was actually the thought that I should tell her about my longer life that made me realise… I don’t think she’ll be happy though; she already hates that there’s more time between our visits for me than there is for her.”

“You’ll have to tell her eventually, though. I think she’ll figure it out in ten years, when you still haven’t aged a day.”

“Yeah, I know.” Rose pushed her risotto around her plate with her fork. “An’ she’d be more upset later if she found out I’d kept it from her.”

The Doctor nodded; that had been his conclusion as well. “And…” He ran his finger around the rim of his wine glass. “What about us?” he asked, feeling a little uncertain, given the events of the day.

Rose grinned and took a sip of her wine. “Oh, I was already gonna tell her about the bond on our next visit. Now I’ve really got to.”

“You were?” That wasn’t what he’d expected. He knew she’d tell Jackie they were together, or committed, or however she wanted to phrase it, but this kind of full acceptance of their bond, the pride he could feel from her as she thought about explaining it to her mother…

She nodded. “Yep. Imagine if we showed up one day, already married, and she didn’t even know we’d been engaged.” She bit her lip, and he could see the teasing smile she was trying to hide. “She’ll be upset enough over not being able to plan a human wedding for us.”

The Doctor’s eyes widened. “She’s going to kill me,” he pronounced dramatically. “She’ll find some way to make it so I don’t regenerate, and she’ll kill me.”

Rose rolled her eyes. “No, she won’t. She was glad we were going on a real date, remember?”

The Doctor shook his head, enjoying the feeling of Rose’s mirth bubbling over their bond. “Dating is one thing. Marrying you in some kind of weird alien ritual—don’t you laugh, Rose Tyler, you know that’s what she’ll say.”

“She might not.”

The Doctor narrowed his eyes. “I bet you ten quid she does.”

Rose giggled and shook her head. “Yeah, no way am I taking that bet.”

“Ah!” The Doctor pointed his fork at Rose. “So you admit it then!”

“It’s… possible,” Rose drawled, “that Mum might say something like that.”

The Doctor snorted. “‘It’s possible,’ she says, as if this wasn’t the same woman who wondered if I had two sex organs.” He smirked when Rose turned red. “I caught a few things here and there while I was out.”

Rose raised an eyebrow. “And one of the things you caught was my mum wondering what else you had two of?”

He remembered the other thing he’d heard, and reached across the table for Rose’s hand. “That, and you asking for my help. So only the important things.”

She opened and shut her mouth, then wet her lips with her tongue. “So yeah, Mum’ll probably make some kind of comment, but you know it doesn’t matter, right?”

“It doesn’t?”

Rose turned their hands over and rubbed her thumb over his pulse point. “Nope. The only Tyler who needs to approve of Time Lord marriage rituals or,” her eyes glittered with laughter, “their sex organs is me.”

“And… and do you?”

“Yeah. I do.”

The Doctor waited a beat, let her feel how much that meant to him, and then he said, “Just double-checking, but you were talking about my—”

“Doctor!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And... That's the last happy, fluffy chapter for the moment. Brace yourselves: Doomsday is coming.


	34. Chapter 34

Despite their laughter the night before, the Doctor was actually a bit nervous about Jackie’s reaction to the two bombshells they were about to drop on her. _If only there were a prescribed gift for, “I’ve asked your daughter to marry me—oh, and surprise, her biology has changed significantly.”_

He heard Rose coming down the corridor and turned around, the smile on his face slipping a little when he saw the huge pack she was carrying. “How long are you planning to stay?”

Rose dropped her pack by the door. “No, you plum. This is three weeks’ worth of washing. I haven’t exactly had time recently.”

He breathed a sigh of relief. “Ah, right. Of course.”

“So? Are we ready?”

“Wellllll…” Rose rolled her eyes and he hastened to explain. “I thought it would be nice if we made a quick stop to get a present for Jackie. Wouldn’t she like something that shows you’re still thinking about her even as we hop from planet to planet?”

“You mean something to distract her when we tell her everything?”

The Doctor tugged on his ear. “The thought might have occurred to me, yes.”

Rose’s lips twitched. “Look at you, being all domestic,” she teased. “All right then, take us someplace to go souvenir shopping, and then we’ll go to London.”

The Doctor adjusted the coordinates to take them to one of his favourite trading posts. When they stepped out of the TARDIS, the familiar smell of spices and heat greeted them. “Where are we?” Rose asked, taking in the brightly coloured tents swarming with people.

“Razda,” he said. “Strictly speaking, it’s an asteroid, which makes it neutral territory in this part of the galaxy. The perfect place for a little intergalactic trading post.”

“Trading post? This looks more like that souk you took me to back in Medieval Morocco.”

The Doctor looked around the bazaar with new eyes—just like he did every time he took Rose somewhere. The colours, the spices, the warren of alleys leading off in all directions. “There’s a certain similarity, yes.”

Rose fanned herself in the heat. “Would the locals be horribly offended if I took my cardi off and just wore my camisole?”

“Nah, the Razdans are a fairly open culture.”

She sighed with relief as she unzipped the sky blue cardigan and tossed it back into the TARDIS. “Well come on then, what are we waiting for?”

The Doctor laughed at her exuberance and let her tug him toward the marketplace. “I need to look for a few parts for the TARDIS as long as we’re here,” he said once they reached the edge of the bazaar. “Most of the stalls with souvenirs and trinkets are that way.” He handed her a credit stick and pointed to the left. “Some clothes sellers too, I think.”

Rose took the credit stick and tapped it against the palm of her hand. The Doctor recognised the sidelong glance she shot him, as well as the mischievous humour flowing over the bond, and he hid a smile.

“Anything in particular I should stay away from?” she asked, glancing at the stalls then back at him. “Poisonous lippie, jewellery that’s really some kind of alien sex toy…”

“Alien sex toy?” he choked out. “Rose, where—” She reminded him of the bracelets she’d almost purchased on Barcelona, and he held back his denial. “Ah, not really. There is such a thing as psychic lipstick, but that’s more a black market product.”

“Kay. How long do I have to look?”

“I’ll probably come find you later, but if I don’t, meet me back here in two hours.”

Rose lifted up on her toes and brushed a kiss across his lips. The Doctor smiled at her and stroked their bond with the delicate touch they’d learned felt like caring and affection.

Once she was gone, he set off in the opposite direction, toward the parts dealers. After an hour of poking around and haggling, he’d collected an armful of bits and bobs to add to his collection of parts for the TARDIS and other devices he made, along with what he needed to make a new sonic screwdriver—a gift he’d been thinking of making for Rose.

After a quick detour to the TARDIS to drop off the bulky parts, the Doctor walked back to the marketplace. The bond told him which direction he needed to take to meet Rose, and he took a meandering path through the stalls to meet her.

Something glinted in the sun, and his steps slowed so he could see what it was. A table laden with jewellery glittered up at him. “Do you see anything you’d like, sir?” the owner asked.

Out of habit, he started to shake his head and walk away, then he thought of Rose. A keen saleswoman, the stall owner recognised the interest in his eyes. “Surely there’s someone you love—mother, sister, lover? Someone who might want a pretty bauble?”

The Doctor ran his eyes over the merchandise on the table, looking for something that would suit Rose. He’d always been so careful before to keep the gifts he gave her strictly friendly; the idea of giving her something only a lover would appealed to him.

The bracelets were immediately dismissed as too impractical for their lives. A bracelet could catch on something and trap Rose when they were trying to get away. Necklaces he looked at a little more carefully. She already wore her key around her neck, so maybe he could add a charm to the chain?

“I might be able to help, sir, if you told me who you’re looking for.”

“Rose,” he said automatically, then realised she needed more than that. “My fiancee,” he added, enjoying the promise the human word indicated, even though it felt strange on his tongue.

The woman’s eyes lit up. “Ah! A special gift for your Rose then.” She moved the trays of bracelets off the table, and the Doctor wondered if she didn’t think they were special enough, or if she’d seen how quickly he’d passed over them.

Then he realised the bracelets were there to hide the finer jewellery she sold. His practiced eye could easily tell the gems in these pieces were worth far more than anything else on the table.

But even among these admittedly beautiful pieces, the Doctor didn’t see one that seemed right for Rose. He sighed and took a half step back, and the woman put her hand on his wrist. “Perhaps I could help. Is there a colour Rose is particularly fond of?”

A year ago, he would have said pink without hesitating. That was still one of Rose’s favourite colours, but he wanted this present to have significance for both of them. “Blue,” he answered. “Deep, sapphire blue.”

The woman’s eyes gleamed; sapphire was one of the more valuable—and expensive—precious stones in the galaxy. “I have a few pieces I think you might be interested in, but first, may I see your credit stick? I must be sure you have the money for what I am about to show you.”

The Doctor handed it to her without question and waited impatiently while she scanned it. “Yes, very good, sir,” she said, her demeanour even more ingratiating now. She lifted up a stack of trays and pulled out the one on the bottom.

Blue gems winked up at him in every setting imaginable. He easily passed over a cat pin with sapphire eyes. The large sapphire heart he dismissed as too cheesy. His hand was hovering over a pair of earrings when he saw it.

Nestled beneath a few charms was a ring set with two vivid sapphires flanking a clear white diamond. The two interwoven strands of the band held the stones in place, leaving no need for a pronged setting that might catch on something.

He picked it up and was surprised by how solid the slender band felt. “Is it made of laurium?” he asked, and she nodded. He knew that laurium, a silvery metal not found on Earth, was lighter than platinum but noticeably heavier than silver. Like platinum, it was completely tarnish resistant.

The Doctor studied the size of the ring and compared it to all his memories of holding Rose’s hand. It would fit, he was fairly certain.

“A ring is highly symbolic to the humans of Earth,” she told him, breaking into his thoughts. “Among many cultures, it was a symbol of a permanent commitment.”

“Rose’s ancestors were from Earth,” he said absently, turning the ring over in his hand. Until Rose had mentioned a human wedding the night before, it hadn’t really occurred to him, and now he wondered why. She had been so willing to accept his own traditions; was there any reason he shouldn’t do the same for her?

 _And we already have a bond,_ he reminded himself, trying to calm the nerves he felt building at the thought of doing something as significant as proposing the human way.

“Then I am certain Rose would appreciate the gesture of such a ring.”

“Hmmm?” The Doctor looked up at the woman, who was holding out her hand expectantly. “Oh, yes. Right.” He handed the ring back to her, along with his credit stick.

“Would you like a box to put it in, sir?” she asked, handing him back the credit stick after she’d taken out the money for the payment.

“No, I’ll just…” He paused, thinking about all the things he had in his pockets. “Yeah, that might be a good idea.”

She bent down and found a small wooden box and placed the ring inside on a soft piece of cloth. He couldn’t decide if he was relieved or disappointed that it wasn’t the traditional human velvet box. On one hand, if he was going to follow tradition, he liked the idea of going all the way with it. On the other hand… well, there could be too much of a good thing, after all.

“There you are, sir,” she said, handing him the box. “I hope Rose appreciates her gift.”

Butterflies fluttered in his stomach. “I do too,” he murmured and dropped the box in his pocket.

The exchange with the jeweller had taken half an hour, and the Doctor could tell Rose was coming in his direction. He looked at the paths branching out in front of him and spotted a flash of blonde weaving through the crowd. Eager to not be caught standing in front of a table of jewellery, he quickly moved to meet her.

“Did you find something for Jackie?” he said when they met.

She handed him a small, round object that looked a little bit like a fancy golden trinket box. It was heavier than it looked, and he hefted it before handing it back. “Bazoolium?” he asked.

“Yeah. Thought it might be worth something in London, where it could be sunny one minute and pouring down rain the next. Mum’s always complaining about getting caught in the rain with the washing.”

The Doctor reached for her hand and let Rose lead the way past the food vendors back to the TARDIS. “You English are so bizarrely proud of your weather,” he commented.

“Complaining about the weather is the national pastime,” she said cheekily.

“Did you know that on Shiu, the rainy season lasts five Earth years?”

Rose stared up at him, and he nodded in confirmation. “So how many of our years equals one of theirs?”

“Four,” he told her. “But it’s a binary system, and the rotation around both suns means that the spread of the seasons actually takes two of their years.”

“That’s mental,” Rose muttered. “I can’t imagine going multiple years with nothing but rain. What’s summer like?”

Their hands swung between them as they left the bazaar behind and climbed the hill toward the TARDIS. “Oh, hot. In fact, Shiuns usually spend summer on Epel, their sister planet.”

“What, like wintering in Majorca?”

“Something like that, yes.”

Rose dropped his hand to unlock the TARDIS. “I will never get tired of learning about new places,” she said as they stepped inside.

The Doctor grinned, then pulled her into a dance pose and twirled her around the console. This was the life he wanted, and it was finally his.

Rose spun away from him and dropped, laughing, onto the jump seat. “Are we ready to go to Mum’s then?”

“Next stop, Powell Estate,” he said, dancing a solo turn around the console and starting the dematerialisation sequence. The time rotor churned in time to the wheezing of the TARDIS engines, and when they landed with a thud, the Doctor checked the monitor.

“The Powell Estate, London, England, Earth, the Solar System,” he announced grandly.

Rose zipped her cardigan back up and reached for her rucksack. “Come on then,” she said and pushed the door open.

Out in the playground, she hoisted her pack up on her shoulders while the Doctor closed the door behind them. The sun was out, but as if to prove her earlier point about London weather, grey clouds in the sky said rain was either coming or going.

“You’re walking more slowly than normal,” he observed as they approached her mum’s building.

“Well, I’ve never done this before have I?” she said, anxiety making her voice a touch sharp. “And… I know we’ve been joking about what she might say, but what if we do end up spending the entire time shouting at each other? I don’t want a fight hanging over my head for the next three months.”

She stopped and drew in a breath. “I’m sorry, Doctor. I just don’t know what’s going to happen.”

He laced his fingers through hers, and the familiar gesture calmed her nerves. “Think of it this way,” he said, and she smiled at the teasing note in his voice. “If she gets upset, I can always distract her by telling her about the bond.” Rose laughed and bumped her shoulder into his, and he wrapped his arm around her.

When she hesitated at the foot of the stairs, he tugged her close and pressed a kiss to the side of her head. “I’m right here with you, Rose,” he breathed in her ear.

Rose’s throat tightened. She’d never expected the Doctor would show affection so openly, but she was starting to realise his earlier reluctance came from his “all in” personality. He didn’t tell her he loved her until he felt he could give her everything.

She squeezed his hand in thanks. “All right, no use dawdling.” Rose led the way up the stairs and used her old key to open the door. “Mum, it’s us! We’re back!”

Jackie rushed out of the kitchen, mock anger on her face. “Oh, I don’t know why you bother with that phone. You never use it!”

Rose rolled her eyes and laughed at the familiar complaint, then pulled her in for a hug. “Shut up, come here!”

The Doctor squeezed around them to get into the flat, and then suddenly her mum let go of her to grab him by the arm. “Oh, no you don’t. Come here!”

Rose leaned against the wall and watched as her mum planted a kiss on the Doctor’s lips. _A little help please?_ he requested.

“Oh, you lovely big fella!” The Doctor flailed a little when Jackie threw her arms around him. “Oh, you’re all mine.”

She raised an eyebrow. _It looks like you’re doing just fine,_ she told him and went on into the living room.

“Just, just, just put me down!” he protested.

“Yes, you are,” she insisted, kissing him one last time.

The Doctor staggered back a step when she released him, then joined Rose in the living room. _I’ll remember this, Rose Tyler._

She just grinned—beneath his protests, she could tell how much he loved being part of a family again.

Rose shrugged her pack off. “I’ve got loads of washing for you,” she said, hefting the bag up into her mother’s arms. “And I got you this,” she added, pulling the weather predictor out of her pocket. “It’s from the market on this asteroid bazaar. It’s made of bazoolium. When it gets cold, yeah, it means it’s going to rain. When it’s hot, it’s going to be sunny. You can use it to tell the weather.”

Jackie ignored the gift. “I’ve got a surprise for you and all.”

The Doctor’s hand came to rest on her back. “Oh, I get her bazoolium, she doesn’t even say thanks,” Rose said, turning it over in her hand.

Her mum just continued on, as if Rose hadn’t even spoken. “Guess who’s coming to visit?” she asked, her eyes wide and earnest. “You’re just in time. He’ll be here at ten past. Who do you think it is?”

Rose was still a little annoyed by the way her mum had just brushed off the gift she’d put so much thought into. “I don’t know.”

“Oh go on, guess,” Jackie insisted.

“No, I hate guessing. Just tell me.”

“It’s your granddad. Granddad Prentice. He’s on his way any minute. Right, cup of tea!” she said and went back into the kitchen.

Rose stared at her with her mouth open. The Doctor sensed her disquiet and rubbed her back. _What’s wrong?_

 _She’s gone mad,_ Rose said, looking after her mum.

_Tell me something new._

She shook her head quickly in answer to his amusement. _Granddad Prentice, that’s her dad. But he died, like, ten years ago._ The Doctor’s amusement disappeared. _Oh, my God. She’s lost it._

Rose took a deep breath and followed her mum into the kitchen. “Mum?” she said. “What you just said about Granddad.”

Jackie stood in the middle of the kitchen, anticipation lighting up her face. “Any second now.”

“But he passed away. His heart gave out. Do you remember that?”

“Of course I do.”

Rose’s fear and concern melted into confusion. “Then how can he come back?”

“Why don’t you ask him yourself?” Jackie looked at her watch. “Ten past. Here he comes.”

Before Rose’s eyes, a ghostly figure appeared in the kitchen and walked around Jackie before standing beside her to face Rose and the Doctor. Rose’s jaw dropped. _What is going on here?_

“Here we are, then. Dad, say hello to Rose. Ain’t she grown?”

_Doctor, how is this possible?_

_It isn’t._

The Doctor stared at the silvery figure for a long moment, then spun on his heels and raced out of the building, with Rose right behind him. Outside, they could see dozens of ghosts interacting with people, even playing games with children. “They’re everywhere,” he said, his brow furrowing in confusion.

“Doctor, look out!”

He turned in the direction Rose pointed just in time to watch one of the figures pass through his body. The cold chill he felt at the contact was familiar somehow, though he couldn’t put a finger on it. Whatever it was, it didn’t feel friendly.

“They haven’t got long,” Jackie said as she walked past him to stand by Rose. “Midday shift only lasts a couple of minutes. They’re about to fade.”

“What do you mean, **shift**?” the Doctor demanded. The storm he’d felt after the Opening Ceremony was breaking around them, and the uncertainty of events put an edge in his voice. “Since when did ghosts have shifts? Since when did shifts have ghosts? What’s going on?”

“Oh, he’s not happy when I know more than him, is he?” Jackie said, tossing a look over her shoulder.

Something wasn’t right about this. He groped around for what was wrong, then he finally pinned it down. Humans were notoriously frightened of ghosts. “But no one’s running or screaming or freaking out.”

“Why should we? Here we go. Twelve minutes past.”

The silver darkened into black, and then the figures faded altogether, the sense of wrongness that had been worrying at the Doctor’s time senses disappearing with them.

Everyone in the street went on as if this was the normal order of business. The sound of children laughing and playing seemed almost eerie now.

 _Scale of 1-10, how dangerous is this?_ Rose asked.

He took her hand and squeezed. _Ten._

She shivered, and he wrapped an arm around her as they walked back inside.

“Jackie, you still haven’t explained about the shifts.”

“Oh, all right. Here, I’ll turn on the telly and you can learn about it for yourself.”

With the timelines swirling around them, the Doctor was unwilling to let Rose go. He tugged her down with him and they sat cross-legged on the threadbare carpet, their joined hands between them. Together, they watched programme after programme dedicated to nothing but the ghosts.

 _This doesn’t make sense,_ he told her when they found a chat show interviewing a woman in love with a ghost.

He kept changing the channel, going through the international broadcasts. France, India, Japan: every place on Earth seemed to have ghosts. “It’s all over the world.”

He flipped the channel one more time, and Peggy from _EastEnders_ was railing at a ghost. _They’ve even made their way into fiction._

Rose rubbed soothing circles over the back of his hand with her thumb, and he brushed against their bond with a silent thank you.

Finally, he had to turn the telly off. He tossed the remote back onto the coffee table and looked at Jackie. “When did it start?”

“Well, first of all, Peggy heard this noise in the cellar, so she goes down—”

The Doctor cut off her recap of _EastEnders._ “No, I mean worldwide.”

“Oh.” She paused for a moment. “That was about two months ago. Just happened. Woke up one morning, and there they all were. Ghosts, everywhere. We all ran ‘round screaming and that. Whole planet was panicking. No sign of you, thank you very much.”

The Doctor opened his mouth to protest that they’d been busy, but Rose silenced him with a look. He raised an eyebrow in question, and it wasn’t until she rolled her eyes at him that he realised he’d nearly told her mum they’d been… otherwise occupied for most of that time, in their timeline.

Jackie looked at them both strangely, then shrugged when it was obvious they weren’t going to say anything. “Then it sort of sank in. It took us time to realise that we’re lucky.”

Everything in the Doctor recoiled at the thought, and he didn’t trust himself to keep an even tone. _Your turn,_ he told Rose.

“What makes you think it’s granddad?” she asked.

Jackie got a far-off look in her eyes. “It just feels like him. There’s that smell, those old cigarettes. Can’t you smell it?”

“I wish I could, Mum, but I can’t.” Rose was scared and worried both, and the Doctor agreed—this was decidedly not good.

“You’ve got to make an effort.” Jackie grabbed her other hand. “You’ve got to want it, sweetheart.”

“The more you want it, the stronger it gets.” That was a phenomenon the Doctor was familiar with, and it wasn’t something harmless beings would generally use.

Jackie nodded. “Sort of, yeah.”

The Doctor ran his free hand through his hair. “Like a psychic link,” he said, piecing things together quickly. “Of course you want your old dad to be alive, but you’re wishing him into existence. The ghosts are using that to pull themselves in.”

“You’re spoiling it.”

He could see the hurt on her face, the desperate need for the ghost to be her father, but he couldn’t play into her delusion. Maybe someday he could explain that he was only doing this because he cared about her, but right now, she wouldn’t believe that.

“I’m sorry, Jackie, but there’s no smell, there’s no cigarettes. Just a memory.”

Rose twisted a little to lean against the sofa. “But if they’re not ghosts, what are they then?”

“Yeah, but they’re human!” Jackie insisted. “You can see them. They look human.”

“She’s got a point.” Rose tapped the fingers of her free hand against her knee. “I mean, they’re all sort of blurred, but they’re definitely people.”

The Doctor pressed his tongue to the back of his teeth. “Maybe not. They’re pressing themselves into the surface of the world. But a footprint doesn’t look like a boot.”

Jackie shook her head slightly and went into the kitchen, making more noise than was strictly necessary to prepare tea. The Doctor ignored her. He looked up at the ceiling, still trying to pin down the feeling that he knew what these ghosts were. That brief contact had felt vaguely familiar. He ran through all the humanoid species he knew, trying to find one that felt like the imprint he’d gotten when the ghost passed through his body.

He couldn’t forget the news commentator’s words comparing the appearance of ghosts to a military formation. Everyone was so certain these figures were ghosts from their past; what if they were invaders from their future?

Rose watched the Doctor jump to his feet and leave the flat. He was probably going back to the TARDIS to run scans or build some sort of device to reveal what the ghosts actually were. That left her with the domestic task.

“Oh, he’s not half rude, that one!” Jackie said, holding a cup of tea out for Rose.

“Mum, you have to understand,” Rose said as she took the cuppa. “To people who haven’t been here the whole time, this sounds a bit… far-fetched. And the Doctor, he always trusts science first. Ghosts don’t fit into what he knows of the universe, so he’s got to try and find an explanation.”

Her mum sat down in her favourite chair. “Well if you’d use your phone, I would have told you about them.”

Heat spread across Rose’s face. She was definitely not going to explain that they’d been too engrossed in each other to think about picking up the phone.

“So, what’s the reason for your visit?” Jackie asked.

She’d had almost forgotten about the things she’d wanted to tell her mum. With all this weirdness with the ghosts going on, right now really wasn’t a good time to tell her that her life had been extended to such a degree that the Doctor didn’t even know when she would die.

Jackie took in her hesitation with narrowed eyes. “Oh, I knew it!” she said. “Himself has got you up the duff, hasn’t he?”

“What?” Rose said, spitting out the tea she’d just drank. “Mum, no! Time Lords were almost all sterile. The chances of that—”

Jackie snorted. “Is that the line he gave you? Oh, when that alien gets back in here…” She rose halfway out of her seat, and Rose grabbed her before she went outside to confront the Doctor.

“Let me finish,” she insisted. “Time Lords…” She looked at the ceiling and called up the memory of what the Doctor had said before they bonded. “They didn’t have kids like humans do. They used these things called… looms.”

“Does that mean I won’t be getting any grandchildren?”

Rose’s embarrassment and annoyance were strong enough to attract the Doctor’s attention. _It’s just Mum,_ she told him, unwilling to distract him from the much more important task of ghost hunting. Besides, she wanted to see the look on his face when she told him her mum wanted a grandchild.

“Well?” Jackie demanded.

Rose pinched the bridge of her nose. “Not without a lot of jiggery pokery,” she said. “I mean, genetically it would work, but since they didn’t reproduce sexually, he’d have to take a sample of his TNA and use it to fertilise one of my eggs—”

Jackie waved her hand. “That’s enough information on the biology side of it.” She looked at Rose for a long moment. “Have you thought about it though? Having his baby?”

“God, Mum, do you even…” Rose stopped and collected herself. “We don’t exactly have a child friendly life, you know?”

Her mum hummed noncommittally and took her cup back into the kitchen. Rose knew her too well to think that was the end of it, and her eyes darted around the room, looking for a way to redirect the conversation.

The newspaper was sitting on the coffee table and a headline caught her eye. “Mum,” she said as she stood up, “I’m gonna go see how the Doctor is doing. We’re parked in the playground if you want to come out.”

She scanned the article as she walked back to the TARDIS. The whole idea of ghosts had been off to her from the start, but she hadn’t been quite as uneasy about it as the Doctor was. This though… this wasn’t right.

“According to the paper,” she said as she pushed the door open, “they’ve elected a ghost as MP for Leeds. Now don’t tell me we’re going to sit back and do nothing.”

The Doctor popped up from below the console, holding something vaguely gun like in his hand and wearing a backpack on his back. “Who you gonna call?”

“Ghostbusters!” she said, laughing along with him.

“I ain’t afraid of no ghosts.”

She didn’t call him on the lie. This was the storm they’d sensed after the Olympics, she was sure of it. All around her, she could feel the strange sense that someone was playing with their timelines.

His fear was a dark river that ran through their bond, threatening to carry her away with it. Rose was determined though that instead of being caught up, she’d be the anchor that kept him from getting swept away entirely.

They kept the laughter up as they ran out of the TARDIS. Jackie was waiting for them, and she and Rose watched while the Doctor set cones up on the grass.

“When’s the next shift?” he asked Jackie.

“Quarter to. But don’t go causing trouble,” she warned him. “What’s that lot do?”

“Triangulates their point of origin.”

“I don’t suppose it’s the Gelth?” Rose asked, even though she knew it wasn’t something that simple.

“Nah.” He started plugging wires into the cones, blocking off an area that Rose guessed would create some sort of field within the perimeter. “They were just coming through one little rift. This lot are transposing themselves over the whole planet. Like tracing paper.”

Rose saw the look on her mum’s face and tipped her head back to look at the sky. _Here it comes…_

“You’re always doing this. Reducing it to science. Why can’t it be real? Just think of it, though. All the people we’ve lost. Our families coming back home. Don’t you think it’s beautiful?”

The Doctor looked at her, squinting when the sun hit him in the eyes. “I think it’s horrific,” he said bluntly.

_Oh, points for diplomacy, Doctor._

He shook his head almost imperceptibly. “Rose, give us a hand.” He unspooled a coil of wire, leading it back into the TARDIS, and Rose jogged after him.

The end of the wire plugged into the console right under the monitor, and he pointed at the screen as he told her what to do. “As soon as the cones activate, if that line goes into the red, press that button there,” he said, pointing to a blue button right next to the port. “If it doesn’t stop,” he shoved the sonic under her nose, “setting fifteen B. Hold it against the port, eight seconds and stop.”

Rose was vaguely aware of her mum standing in the doorway looking disapproving, but she kept her attention focused on the Doctor’s instructions. “Fifteen B, eight seconds.”

“If it goes into the blue, activate the deep scan on the left.”

Rose’s hand hovered over the controls, and she tapped into her connection with the TARDIS. The ship let her keep moving until she was over the right button. “This one.”

The Doctor grinned. “Yeah!”

Despite the situation, Rose felt a little giddy that she was learning to communicate with the TARDIS like a pilot, not just a passenger. She let out a little laugh and boosted herself up onto a control-free section of the console.

The Doctor moved to stand in front of her, his hands on her knees. _So, what was Jackie bothering you about?_

Rose reached out and played with his hair. _She wanted to know when we’re going to give her a grandchild._

His wide eyes and red ears were exactly what she’d hoped for. “Right!” he said, a little too loudly as he wheeled around to look at her mum. “Now, what’ve we got? Two minutes to go?”

Jackie looked at her watch and nodded, and he ran back outside to finish setting the cones up. Rose watched through the open door as he used the not-gun attached to his pack to activate the cones, then she fixed her gaze on the monitor.

The line shifted into the red, and she followed the Doctor’s instructions to the letter. After holding the sonic to it for eight seconds, it shifted back toward the centre of the screen.

 _What’s the line doing?_ he asked as he finished one and moved onto the next.

_It’s all right. It’s holding!_

“You even look like him,” her mum said, out of the blue.

“How do you mean?” Rose asked absently, her attention focused on their experiment. Then she realised— _their experiment_. This wasn’t just a life she observed anymore, and maybe that showed. “I suppose I do, yeah,” she said, grinning a bit.

Jackie paced across the grating behind her. “You’ve changed so much.”

“For the better.”

The line shifted a little, but it didn’t go into the red.

“I suppose.”

The disapproval in her mother’s voice frustrated Rose, and she rounded on her. _Can’t she ever be pleased that I’m finally happy?_ “Mum, I used to work in a shop.”

Jackie crossed her arms across her chest. “I’ve worked in shops. What’s wrong with that?”

“No, I didn’t mean that.” Rose sighed and turned back to the console.

“I know what you meant. What happens when I’m gone?”

Rose’s eyes widened. Had her mum already figured it out on her own? But how? “Don’t talk like that.”

“No, but really. When I’m dead and buried, you won’t have any reason to come back home. What happens then?”

Rose wasn’t going to tell her, she wasn’t, but she kept pressing. “Mum, I know you want me to come home and have a normal life, but I can’t.”

“Well why not?”

“Because I…” Rose gave in. Apparently this conversation was happening now whether she liked it or not. “Because you’re right, I’ve changed. Do you remember what I did to save the Doctor’s life when he sent me home?” Rose kept an eye on the scanner, but her attention was all on her mother.

“You opened this thing up,” Jackie said, “an’ there was lots of light. Then the doors shut and you disappeared for months. Months, Rose!”

“Yeah, and that changed me. I’m not… Mum, I’m not gonna die, not for a really, really long time.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Jackie asked, angry denial on her face.

“Here we go!” the Doctor shouted, to Rose’s relief.

“The scanner’s working. It says delta one six,” she called back, conveniently ignoring her mother.

“Come on then, you beauty!” he said, and she laughed a little at his exuberance.

“Rose, what do you mean, you’re not gonna die?”

Her jaw tightened. “Do we have to do this now?”

“Oh, you started it! You can’t just leave it there.”

“Fine then,” she snapped back. “What I did, it changed me, it changed my body. I’m more like the Doctor now than I am human. An’ you know what, I’m glad. Because that means that I won’t have to leave him on his own.”

The line went into the blue before her mother could reply to that, and Rose activated the deep scan. The TARDIS hummed in response, and Rose knew she was fixing on coordinates.

A moment later, the Doctor ran back into the TARDIS and tossed his coat over a strut. “I said so! Those ghosts have been forced into existence from one specific point, and I can track down the source.”

Rose saw what was going to happen a moment too late to stop him from pulling the lever. “Allons-y!”

Jackie stalked over to the edge of the control room and boosted herself up on one of the outer railings. Rose shook her head and waited for her Time Lord to come down far enough off his high to realise something was wrong.

“I like that,” he said, rambling on. “Allons-y. I should say allons-y more often. Allons-y. Watch out, Rose Tyler. Allons-y,” he said, turning to her with a manic grin. “And then, it would be really brilliant if I met someone called Alonso, because then I could say, ‘Allons-y, Alonso,’ every time.”

Finally, his speech lost momentum and he caught her mood. “You’re staring at me.”

“My mum’s still on board,” she said quietly, tossing a glance over her shoulder.

Jackie glared at them with her arms crossed. “If we end up on Mars, I’m going to kill you.”

If it hadn’t been such a disaster, the look of horrified confusion on his face would have made Rose laugh. She knew—deep down in her bones she knew—that her mum was the last person on Earth he ever would have taken with him into such an uncertain situation. Not because he didn’t trust her or because she wouldn’t know what to do, but because he actually liked her and wanted to keep her safe.

 _Too late now_ , she thought ruefully, crossing all her fingers that this wouldn’t turn out to be as dangerous a situation as they both knew it was.

The TARDIS landed, and the outside scanner flicked on. It looked like a warehouse, but more importantly, they were completely surrounded by soldiers.

The Doctor crossed his arms and rocked back on his heels. “Oh well, there goes the advantage of surprise. Still, cuts to the chase,” he said, walking toward the door. “Stay in here; look after Jackie.”

After her mum’s attitude earlier, that was the last thing Rose wanted—plus, the Doctor’s dismissive tone rankled. _I’m not a child minder._

He turned on his heel. _Rose, I have no idea what’s going to happen out there. If we all go out together and something goes wrong, we won’t have anyone to come to the rescue._

Rose nodded. When he put it like that, she felt like he was trusting her with something important, not shoving her in the back because he didn’t trust her.

Then she realised what he was going to do. He was stepping out there, on his own with no protection, into a group of people who were all pointing guns at him.

Quick as a wink, she moved in front of him and put her arms up across the doors. “Doctor, they’ve got guns.”

“And I haven’t,” he said, putting his hands on her hips and pulling her away from the door. “Which makes me the better person, don’t you think? They can shoot me dead, but the moral high ground is mine.”

She stared at him, and his recklessly carefree facade disappeared for a moment. He kissed her quickly. _I’m counting on you, Rose,_ he told herbefore exiting the TARDIS.

Rose shifted closer to the door and lifted up on her toes so she could look out the window. Her mum crept up beside her, standing by the still ajar door. _At least she’s keeping her mouth shut, for once._

In the warehouse, a professionally dressed woman walked toward the Doctor. “Oh! Oh, how marvellous.” She started clapping, and soon all the soldiers were clapping too. “Oh, very good. Superb. Happy day.”

Confusion flowed over their bond in both directions. _Were we expected?_ was the shared question.

“Um, thanks,” the Doctor said. “Nice to meet you. I’m the Doctor.”

Rather than the usual confusion over name and title, this was greeted with even more enthusiastic applause. “Oh, I should say,” the woman said exclaimed. “Hurray!”

“You, you’ve heard of me, then?”

The woman looked down her nose at him. “Well of course we have. And I have to say, if it wasn’t for you, none of us would be here. The Doctor and the TARDIS.”

By now, Rose was getting creeped out by the clapping. Who were these people, and how did they know so much about them? Knowing not only the Doctor by name, but their ship?

The Doctor held up his hands, and finally they stopped. “And you are?” he asked.

“Oh, plenty of time for that,” she said dismissively. “But according to the records, you’re not one for travelling alone. The Doctor and his companion. That’s the pattern, isn’t it, right?” Suddenly she looked less like someone welcoming a visiting dignitary and more like someone who pointed guns at blue boxes. “There’s no point hiding anything. Not from us. So where is she?”

The fierce wave of protectiveness from the Doctor nearly knocked Rose over. _Rose… I’m going to take Jackie._

_What? No!_

_Yes. I need you to work on getting us out, remember?_

“Yes. Sorry. Good point. She’s just a bit shy, that’s all.” His hand reached into the TARDIS, and Rose watched as he tugged her mum out into the warehouse with him. “But here she is, Rose Tyler.”

Rose leaned her head against the door. She hated this plan, but he was right—it was the best chance they had. Her mum couldn’t rescue a hamster from a cat; she’d be useless in getting them out of this trap.

“Hmm. She’s not the best I’ve ever had. Bit too blonde. Not too steady on her pins. A lot of that.” Through the window, Rose saw him mime talking with his hand, gaining a laugh from the woman. “And just last week, she stared into the heart of the Time Vortex and aged fifty-seven years. But she’ll do.”

“I’m forty,” Jackie protested, and even though Rose couldn’t see her face, she knew her mum was glaring at the Doctor.

“Deluded. Bless. I’ll have to trade her in. Do you need anyone? She’s very good at tea. Well, I say very good, I mean not bad. Well, I say not bad. Anyway, lead on. Allons-y. But not too fast. Her ankle’s going.”

“I’ll show you where my ankle’s going,” her mum muttered as they were led away from the TARDIS.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a quick Doomsday reminder: I'm being purposely cagey on how I've handled this story. Any questions on the topic will get a fairly stock answer of, "No matter what happens in the lever room, I promise you Rose will not be trapped permanently in Pete's World." There's a sequel coming, so that promise either means 1) Rose doesn't fall at all, 2) She does, but comes back before the end of this story, or 3) She does, and the sequel is a reunion fic.


	35. Chapter 35

The Doctor’s mind worked a mile a minute as he followed the abrasive blonde through the warehouse. Where exactly were they? That he’d been expected seemed clear, but how?

But she was talking. “It was only a matter of time until you found us, and at last you’ve made it. I’d like to welcome you, Doctor. Welcome to Torchwood.”

They walked through double doors into another cavernous warehouse filled with packing crates all marked with the same capital T logo. Overhead, men were working on a small spacecraft. “That’s a Jathar Sunglider,” the Doctor said, the mystery growing more complex.

“Came down to Earth off the Shetland Islands ten years ago.”

“What, did it crash?”

“No, we shot it down. It violated our airspace. Then we stripped it bare. The weapon that destroyed the Sycorax on Christmas Day? That was us.”

For all that Torchwood seemed to know him, they clearly didn’t know much about him, or she wouldn’t have blithely told him she’d been responsible for multiple deaths. _Or,_ he thought, horror creeping over him, _they know but they don’t think I can do anything about it._

She smiled, as if she’d followed his train of thought and agreed. “Now, if you’d like to come with me.”

As they walked past more crates in various stages of unpacking, the Doctor reached for his bond with Rose. _Be careful. This lot is more dangerous than they look._

_Oh, more dangerous than a dozen rifles pointed at you?_

_Rose._

_I’ll be careful._

“The Torchwood Institute has a motto,” the woman said, and he turned his attention back to her. “If it’s alien, it’s ours. Anything that comes from the sky, we strip it down and we use it for the good of the British Empire.”

“For the good of the what?” Jackie spluttered.

The woman turned around, a calm, teaching expression on her face. “The British Empire.”

“There isn’t a British Empire.”

The Torchwood director looked Jackie up and down, that condescending look on her face again. “Not yet,” she said smugly. “Ah, excuse me. Now, if you wouldn’t mind.” A soldier in fatigues handed her a large weapon and she hoisted it up in front of her. “Do you recognise this, Doctor?”

“That’s a particle gun,” he said, growing less impressed with the Torchwood Institute by the minute.

“Good, isn’t it?” she said with some pride. “Took us eight years to get it to work.”

A headache built behind the Doctor’s eyes. Instead of flowing around them in mild eddies, Time was knotting itself up. “It’s the twenty-first century. You can’t have particle guns.”

She blinked innocently. “We must defend our border against the alien. Thank you, Sebastian, isn’t it?” she said and returned the particle gun to him.

The soldier smiled. “Yes, Ma’am.”

“Thank you, Sebastian. I think it’s very important to know everyone by name,” she confided, and the Doctor nodded—because knowing your staff by name made up for theft and world domination. “Torchwood is a very modern organisation. People skills. That’s what it’s all about these days. I’m a people person.”

 _Names. How can I get you to give me yours?_ The Doctor tugged at his ear. “Have you got anyone called Alonso?”

She tilted her head back and considered. “No, I don’t think so. Is that important?”

“No, I suppose not. What was your name?” he asked, finally slipping the question in where she might not notice.

“Yvonne. Yvonne Hartman.”

The hair on the Doctor’s arm stood on end, and he moved around Yvonne to an open crate. Inside, there were two, large footstool shape objects that he could tell were exceptionally strong magnets. He reached down and picked one up, hefting it out of the crate.

“Ah, yes,” Yvonne said. “Now, we’re rather fond of these. The magnaclamp. Found in a spaceship buried at the base of Mount Snowdon. Attach this to an object and it cancels the mass. I could use it to lift two tonnes of weight with a single hand. That’s an imperial ton, by the way.” She nodded firmly. “Torchwood refuses to go metric.”

Rose pressed into the bond, and the Doctor brushed the dust off his hands and walked away to hide his sudden distraction.

 _They’re moving the TARDIS,_ she told him.

_Stay hidden for as long as you can._

He broke the connection with her and clenched his jaw. The sheer arrogance of this organisation made him sick, all the more so because he recognised it. His own people had felt a similar superiority toward other cultures. _Yes, and look where it got them._

“So, what about these ghosts?” he asked as he peered through a magnifying glass.

“Ah yes, the ghosts. They’re, ah… what you might call a side effect.”

The little bit of patience he had remaining was dwindling away. The ghosts that were wreaking havoc over the entire world were just a side effect of something this institute was doing? “Of what?”

“All in good time, Doctor.” Yvonne smiled, but the Doctor didn’t feel reassured. “There is an itinerary, trust me.”

“Oi! Where are you taking that?”Jackie shouted. They watched the TARDIS go by on the back of a jeep.

_I see you, Rose._

“If it’s alien, it’s ours,” Yvonne explained smoothly.

“You’ll never get inside it,” he told her, hoping the promise of certain failure would discourage her.

“Hmm! Et cetera.”

Yvonne turned away, but the Doctor kept his eyes on his ship. His whole world was inside those doors, and she’d just claimed it by right of conquest.

The door opened a crack, and Rose peeked out at him. They both relaxed fractionally at seeing each other. _I haven’t asked,_ he told her, _but I’m pretty sure I’m a captive. It’s up to you to get us all out of here._

She nodded, then Yvonne walked away, and he had to break eye contact in order to avoid detection.

Yvonne led them through a rather claustrophobic corridor which he suspected was actually a tunnel from the warehouse to another building. “All those times I’ve been on Earth, I’ve never heard of you,” the Doctor commented.

“But of course not,” she said, and the condescension in her voice swelled to new levels. “You’re the enemy. You’re actually named in the Torchwood Foundation Charter of eighteen seventy-nine as an enemy of the Crown.”

“Eighteen seventy-nine.” The date immediately rang a bell. “That was called Torchwood, that house in Scotland.”

“That’s right. Where you encountered Queen Victoria and the werewolf.”

“I think he makes half of it up,” Jackie argued, and he tugged on his ear, hoping Yvonne hadn’t caught the mistake. If Jackie was his companion, she’d know he didn’t need to make up any of his adventures.

“Her Majesty created the Torchwood Institute with the express intention of keeping Britain great, and fighting the alien horde.”

He finally had a chance to ask. “But if I’m the enemy, does that mean that I’m a prisoner?”

“Oh, yes. But we’ll make you perfectly comfortable,” she promised as the corridor opened up onto a small antechamber. “And there is so much you can teach us. Starting with this.”

Yvonne touched her ID badge to a security scanner on the wall, and a pair of hydraulic doors slid open with a hiss. This room was a laboratory, not a warehouse. A few scientists in white lab coats stood at their stations, and at the end of the room, a large gold sphere hovered in mid air.

“Now, what do you make of that?” Yvonne said, pointing to the sphere.

The Doctor knew what he was looking at, but he couldn’t quite believe the evidence in front of his eyes. Time Lord scientists had theorised that Void travel could be possible, but they’d never managed to achieve it.

One of the scientists was trying to catch his attention, but the Doctor barely spared him enough attention to catch his name and offer some kind of answer.

A Void ship, here on Earth. _As if the day wasn’t bad enough already._ The skin on the back of the Doctor’s neck crawled when he looked at the sphere. It didn’t belong here, either in this space or in this time. It was _wrong._

“What is that thing?” Jackie asked.

“We’ve got no idea,” Yvonne said, and her matter-of-fact answer stirred the Doctor’s anger. If they didn’t know what it was, why were they messing with it?

“But what’s wrong with it?” Jackie pressed on.

“What makes you think there’s something wrong with it?” Dr. Singh asked.

“I don’t know. It just feels weird.”

The Doctor climbed the steps to get as close to the sphere as possible while the conversation continued on, Yvonne explaining that prickly feeling to Jackie. “Well, the sphere has that effect on everyone,” she said. “Makes you want to run and hide, like it’s forbidden.”

Dr. Singh took over the explanation. “We tried analysing it using every device imaginable.”

Even though he knew he was right, the Doctor still pulled his 3D glasses out of his pocket to make sure. There, dancing around the sphere, were thousands of little particles. _Void stuff._

“But according to our instruments,” Dr. Singh continued, “the sphere doesn’t exist. It weighs nothing, it doesn’t age. No heat, no radiation, and has no atomic mass.”

“But I can see it,” Jackie protested.

“Fascinating, isn’t it?” Dr. Singh said. “It upsets people because it gives off nothing. It is absent.”

Pieces started to come together to form a horrifying picture. Ghosts flecked with Void stuff. A Void ship being experimented on by a group that was about as cautious as bulls in a china shop.

“Well, Doctor?” Yvonne asked.

“This is a Void ship.”

The atmosphere in the room turned electric with his pronouncement. “And what is that?” she pressed.

He took off the 3D glasses and turned back around. “Well, it’s impossible for starters. I always thought it was just a theory, but it’s a vessel designed to exist outside time and space, travelling through the Void.”

The Doctor sat down at the top of the stairs, looking between Yvonne and Dr. Singh.

“And what’s the Void?” Dr. Singh asked.

“The space between dimensions.” He looked between the two humans, taking a deep breath before launching into the explanation of parallel worlds. “There’s all sorts of realities around us, different dimensions, billions of parallel universes all stacked up against each other,” he said, using his hands to illustrate the idea of the worlds layering on top of each other.

“The Void is the space in between, containing absolutely nothing. Imagine that. Nothing. No light, no dark, no up, no down, no life, no time. Without end. My people called it the Void; the Eternals call it the Howling. But some people call it Hell.”

“But someone built the sphere,” Dr. Singh pointed out. “What for? Why go there?”

“To explore? To escape?” he suggested, instinct telling him the second answer was closer to correct. “You could sit inside that thing and eternity would pass you by. The Big Bang, end of the universe, start of the next, wouldn’t even touch the sides. You’d exist outside the whole of creation.”

Yvonne smirked. “You see, we were right. There is something inside it.”

Even after everything he’d learned about her, Yvonne’s excitement still surprised him. Didn’t she understand the weight of what he was telling her? Or was she arrogant enough to think Torchwood could handle every alien they came across?

“Oh, yes,” the Doctor said soberly, trying to dampen her enthusiasm.

“So how do we get in there?” Dr. Singh asked eagerly.

The Doctor’s patience was gone. “We don’t.” He pushed himself off the platform and pointed up at the ship. “We send that thing back into Hell. How did it get here in the first place?”

“Well, that’s how it all started,” Yvonne said. “The sphere came through into this world, and the ghosts followed in its wake.”

He looked up at the sphere and shoved his hands in his pockets. “Show me,” he ordered and walked quickly toward the door and away from the thing that every sense he had screamed against.

The door opened in front of him, and he turned left down the corridor. “No, Doctor,” Yvonne called after him, and he pivoted back in the opposite direction.

Rose sensed his anger and sent a quick question along the bond.

_I’m just amazed by human arrogance._

_Oi!_

_Sorry, love. But this… this is bad. And we shouldn’t be here, Rose. Do you feel that?_ He felt her agreement. _Something has pulled at timelines to bring us here, and I don’t like what that implies._

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Rose watched on the monitor as the soldiers escorted the Doctor and her mother away, taking care to note which direction they went. A plan was already forming in her mind. This place, wherever they were, was probably big enough for her to get out and explore and not cross paths with that lady and her crazy soldiers.

Her plan was only half-formed when she felt the Doctor reach out of their bond. _Be careful. This lot is more dangerous than they look._

Rose snorted. _Oh, more dangerous than a dozen rifles pointed at you?_

The way he said her name told her all she needed to know, and she swallowed hard. _I’ll be careful._

She paced in front of the console, adjusting her plan to this new information. The Doctor was normally one for jumping into danger feet first, so if he was urging her to be cautious…

Rose drew in a breath and focused on the timelines. She gasped when they appeared; instead of a line moving forward, all she could see was a knotted mess.

A loud sound overhead caught Rose’s attention, and then she grabbed the railing as the TARDIS swayed back and forth as if it were being picked up by a crane. A hard thud a moment later ended the swaying, and a glance at the monitor confirmed Rose’s suspicions. They’d been picked up and placed in the back of a jeep.

 _They’re moving the TARDIS,_ she told the Doctor.

She felt the ship’s indignation at the rough handling and patted the console. “It’s not that much worse than how the Doctor sometimes treats you, yeah?” she said, trying to calm the sentient ship. But both she and the TARDIS knew the difference. The Doctor loved the TARDIS and would never do anything to truly harm her. Who knew what these people would try in an attempt to break down the doors?

_I see you, Rose._

Rose watched their progress through the buildings on the monitor and caught sight of the Doctor and her mum. As they drove by, she couldn’t resist peeking out to catch his eye, though she was careful not to be spotted by anyone but him.

She shivered at the grim expression on his face. The TARDIS’s annoyance and concern had occupied most of her attention for the last few minutes, and she hadn’t noticed his mood darkening.

 _I haven’t asked,_ he told her, _but I’m pretty sure I’m a captive. It’s up to you to get us all out of here._

To her surprise, Rose took that announcement calmly. She offered the Doctor a half smile, which he acknowledged with a small nod. Then he turned away, and she closed the doors and steeled her resolve.

The plan she’d been working on earlier came back to her. She’d be careful, but she couldn’t save everyone by sitting in the TARDIS while the Doctor was being dissected by Creepy Blonde Lady.

She grabbed the Doctor’s coat and rummaged through his pockets. “Psychic paper, psychic paper,” she muttered to herself as her fingers brushed against wire springs, another banana, and the bag of jelly babies. She pulled a small wooden box out and looked at it for a moment before putting it back in the pocket and finally grabbing the psychic paper.

She glanced at the monitor one more time to make sure the coast was clear, then she slipped outside. The huge golden sarcophagus in front of the TARDIS provided cover for a careful exploration. That was a lucky thing, because when she peered around it cautiously, she saw two soldiers standing guard.

_I won’t be going that way, then._

Rose turned around and scanned the room for something to use as a disguise. She slowly circled the TARDIS, hiding again as more soldiers entered the room. But she saw what she needed, and as soon as their footsteps faded, she darted out of hiding and grabbed the lab coat.

Years of traveling with the Doctor had taught Rose how to act like she belonged. As long as you didn’t look like you didn’t think you were in the right place, most people would never notice.

Rose put her shoulders back and walked down aisles lined with large wooden crates. All around her, the sounds of people working filled the air, with an occasional bang echoing loudly. She didn’t flinch once, instead looking for someone who might be able to help her find the Doctor.

Across the warehouse, she spotted someone wearing a lab coat that matched hers. Striding confidently across the room, she left through the same door he’d gone through. Out in the corridor, she glanced subtly to her left, but two men were walking toward her, carrying something large.

_The other way then._

She moved quickly to get in front of the two and spotted her quarry farther down the corridor. Stretching her legs as much as she could without running, she sped to keep up with him. When he ducked behind a door, she gave up all pretence of being casual, breaking into a fast jog.

 _How big is this place?_ she wondered as they walked through yet another large warehouse. Rose kept carefully to the side of the room, walking casually and yet not losing sight of the bloke in the lab coat.

He went through another door on the opposite side of the room, and after what she thought was a safe length of time, Rose followed. Then they were walking again, in the never ending corridors.

A spike in the Doctor’s anger distracted her from her game of cat and mouse. Keeping an eye on the scientist, she slowed down a little so she could talk to the Doctor.

At her questioning probe, he said, _I’m just amazed by human arrogance._

 _Oi!_ she protested reflexively.

_Sorry, love, but this… this is bad. And we shouldn’t be here, Rose. Do you feel that?_

There was a corner ahead, and Rose jogged to reach it before she lost the person she was following, at the same time answering his question with an affirmative. She’d felt the same thing earlier when she’d looked at the timelines, that sense that they did not belong here.

_Something has pulled at timelines to bring us here, and I don’t like what that implies._

When she turned the corner, he was already gone. She looked around and spotted hydraulic doors and registered the sound she’d heard just after the man disappeared from sight. Beside the door there was a security badge scanner.

Rose kissed the psychic paper and tapped it against her fingers. She’d never seen it work on something electronic before, only on people. Still, a computer was basically trained to see one particular thing, right? So maybe if she told the psychic paper to replicate a security badge, it would work? She held it to the scanner, waiting with bated breath until the door opened.

Rose’s eyes were immediately arrested by the large sphere hovering at the opposite end of the long room. Her feet started walking toward it, almost without any orders from her brain. There was something… just…

“Can I help you?”

Rose couldn’t look away from the sphere, but saw the lab coat in her peripheral vision and realised he was probably the scientist in charge of studying this… thing. “I was just—” She pointed helplessly, wishing the Doctor were here to explain what it was.

“Try not to look. It does that to everyone.” His calm attitude broke the hold the sphere had on Rose, and she met his eyes for the first time, then she dropped her eyes to his badge—Dr. Rajesh Singh.

“What do you want?” he asked.

Rose cursed to herself. She’d broken the first rule of subterfuge; walking into a room and gawping at the contents didn’t exactly convey confidence or an air of belonging. “Sorry.” She shook her head. “They sent me from personnel. They said some man had been taken prisoner. Some sort of doctor?” She rubbed at her face nervously. “I’m just checking the lines of communication. Did they tell you anything?”

The suspicion in Rajesh’s eyes was evident, and Rose couldn’t blame him. Why would personnel send a grunt to a lab to find out about a prisoner?

“Can I see your authorisation?” he asked.

“Sure.”

Rose handed him the psychic paper, and he only glanced at it before smiling. “That’s lucky. You see, everyone at Torchwood has at least a basic level of psychic training.” He took off his glasses and handed the wallet back to her. “This paper is blank, and you’re a fake.”

Rajesh pressed a finger to his earpod and called orders out. “Seal the room. Call security. Samuel, can you check the door locks?” he told the scientist standing behind him. “She just walked right in.”

“Doing it now, sir.” Rose nearly fell over when Mickey turned around, but he gestured for her to be quiet, and she had just enough wits about her to maintain her composure while Mickey indicated everything would be fine.

“Well, if you’d like to take a seat,” the head scientist said, handing her back the psychic paper.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Yvonne used her badge to open a lift; then she inserted a key into the control. “Straight to the top,” she said.

The Doctor shoved his hands in his pockets and leaned against the wall, his mind working a mile a minute as he tried to process the last hour. A top secret agency working in the heart of London, designed to protect humanity against aliens. The arrogance of a group convinced it was superior enough to take anyone on, even something that was so determined to avoid detection that it escaped into the Void. And every single one of his time senses telling him to take Rose and get as far from here as possible.

The ding of the elevator reaching the top floor brought him out of his reverie, and he followed Yvonne down a short corridor into an eerie white room with ceilings that were easily thirty feet high.

She led the way toward the far wall. “The sphere came through here. A hole in the world.”

The Doctor put his hand on the wall and a shiver ran down his spine. The barriers between the worlds were exceptionally thin right here, thinner than anything he’d ever felt before.

“Not active at the moment,” Yvonne continued, “but when we fire particle engines at that exact spot, the breach opens up.”

“How did you even find it?”

“We were getting warning signs for years. A radar black spot. So we built this place, Torchwood Tower. The breach was six hundred feet above sea level. It was the only way to reach it.”

The Doctor put his 3D glasses on again; as expected, the room was filled with Void stuff—especially the wall itself. “You built a skyscraper just to reach a spatial disturbance? How much money have you got?”

“Enough,” she said, her heels clicking on the floor as she walked away, leaving the Doctor staring at the wall.

Without a pan dimensional race keeping the parallel dimensions stable, travel between the worlds was hugely dangerous. And yet Torchwood had not only discovered a way to access the Void, they were using doing so on a regular basis.

The Doctor spun on his heel and stalked after Yvonne, who was standing in an office with Jackie, looking out at the Thames.

He leaned against the doorframe and finally let all the anger he’d been harbouring loose, enjoying the way Yvonne started when she heard his voice. “So, you find the breach, probe it, the sphere comes through six hundred feet above London, bam. It leaves a hole in the fabric of reality,” he said, slowing down to emphasise the point. “And that hole, you think, ‘Oh, shall we leave it alone? Shall we back off? Shall we play it safe?’ Nah, you think, ‘Let’s make it bigger!’”

He’d nearly shouted the last sentence, but Yvonne just smiled at him like he was a child who didn’t understand what his parents were doing. “It’s a massive source of energy. If we can harness that power, we need never depend on the Middle East again. Britain will become truly independent,” she said, as if that warranted tearing reality apart. “Look, you can see for yourself. Next ghost shift’s in two minutes.”

The Doctor stood aside while Yvonne went back into the white room. “Cancel it,” he said as she walked past him.

“I don’t think so.”

His anger and frustration seeped into his voice. “I’m warning you, cancel it.”

“Oh, exactly as the legends would have it,” Yvonne said mockingly, turning to face him down. “The Doctor, lording it over us. Assuming alien authority over the rights of man.”

She didn’t understand, she just didn’t know what she was doing. _But maybe there’s a way to make her understand._ “Let me show you.” Back in the office, he pointed the sonic at the window. The toughened glass fractured, but it didn’t break. “Sphere comes through.”

Yvonne’s eyes widened and she leaned forward a little.

“But when it made the hole, it cracked the world around it,” he explained, gesturing wildly to emphasise his point. “The entire surface of this dimension splintered. And that’s how the ghosts get through. That’s how they get everywhere. They’re bleeding through the fault lines.”

The underlying point that no one knew what the ghosts actually were was clear. “Walking from their world, across the Void, and into yours, with the human race hoping and wishing and helping them along. But too many ghosts, and—” He tapped a single finger against a crack, and the entire window shattered onto the floor.

For the first time since he’d met her, Yvonne didn’t look smug, and he hoped for a moment that he’d gotten through to her. Then she lifted her chin and said, “Well, in that case we’ll have to be more careful.”

She turned away from him to give orders to her staff. “Positions! Ghost shift in one minute.”

The Doctor stepped through the empty window frame into the lever room. “Miss Hartman, I am asking you, please don’t do it.”

She looked up at the ceiling as she turned back around. “We have done this a thousand times.”

Her impatience was evident, but he was just as tired of her stubbornness as she was of his. “Then stop at a thousand!” he yelled.

“We’re in control of the ghosts,” she claimed, again talking to him as he were a child. “The levers can open the breach, but equally they can close it.”

He stared into her eyes for a moment, trying to find some way to convince her that her enormous arrogance could actually destroy reality. But in her face, all he saw was a determination to continue on her path and unwavering confidence that Torchwood was completely in control.

 _Maybe there’s another way._ “Okay,” he said, backing off completely.

“Sorry?” she asked.

“Never mind,” he told her as he reentered the office. “As you were.”

“What, is that it?”

He pulled a chair out of her office, relishing the way the scraping noise made her flinch. When he had it where he wanted it, facing the wall with Yvonne only a few feet from him, he sat down and said, “No, fair enough. Said my bit. Don’t mind me. Any chance of a cup of tea?”

A young black woman sitting at one of the computers looked back at Yvonne. “Ghost shift in twenty seconds.”

“Mmm, can’t wait to see it,” he said, not minding if his sarcasm shone through.

“You can’t stop us, Doctor,” Yvonne warned him with her arms crossed over her chest.

“No, absolutely not. Pull up a chair, Rose,” he invited, and Jackie put her hand on his shoulder, for once offering support instead of argument. “Come and watch the fireworks.”

The computer system beeped, counting off the seconds.

“Ghost shift in ten seconds,” the same woman said.

The Doctor fixed his eyes on Yvonne as the final countdown commenced. He saw her confidence falter, let her see exactly how worried he was that this could be disastrous, and finally saw her accept was he was telling her.

“Stop the shift,” she said at the last second. “I said stop.”

Some of the tension eased out of his shoulders. “Thank you.”

“I suppose it makes sense to get as much intelligence as possible,” she said grudgingly. “But the programme will recommence, as soon as you’ve explained everything.”

“I’m glad to be of help,” he said honestly. Everything in him said the walls of reality needed to stay closed; for his sake, for Rose’s, and for that of the entire Earth.

“And someone clear up this glass. They did warn me, Doctor. They said you like to make a mess.”

The Doctor spun slightly in his chair to look at Jackie, but she was looking at the blank white wall.

Yvonne beckoned for the Doctor to follow her back into her office. “We can talk in here,” she said.

The Doctor dragged the chair back to where he’d found it and sat down again, waiting for her to begin explaining.

At her desk, Yvonne brought up the information they had on the ghosts. “So these ghosts, whatever they are, did they build the sphere?”

The Doctor reclined back in his chair and put his feet on the table, but if she could have seen the way his fingers were tapping rapidly against his stomach, she would have recognised his nonchalance for the lie it was. Something was going on with Rose, but he there was nothing he could do to help. He had to trust her to get herself out of the situation while he tended to the matter of the ghosts.

“Must have. Aimed it at this dimension like a cannon ball.”

“Yvonne?” She glanced down at the computer when Rajesh spoke. “I think you should see this. We’ve got a visitor. We don’t know who she is, but funnily enough, she arrived at the same time as the Doctor.”

The Doctor tried to hide his wince. That’s why Rose felt off.

“She one of yours?” Yvonne asked, turning the computer toward him.

Rose and Dr. Singh stared back at him over the video connection, and he shook his head in what he hoped was believable fib. “Never seen her before in my life.”

“Good.” The smirk on Yvonne’s face told the Doctor she was going to call his bluff. “Then we can have her shot.”

“Oh, all right then,” he said, putting his feet back on the ground. “It was worth a try.” He nodded toward the laptop. “That’s, that’s Rose Tyler.”

Rose waved to him in apology. “Sorry. Hello.” He waved back and reassured her as best he could.

“Well, if that’s Rose Tyler, who’s she?” Yvonne asked, looking at Jackie.

Jackie raised her chin slightly. “I’m her mother.”

“Oh, you travel with her mother?” Yvonne’s lips were pressed into a tight line, and he suspected she was trying to hold back a laugh.

“He kidnapped me,” Jackie countered belligerently.

He looked pleadingly at Yvonne. “Please, when Torchwood comes to write my complete history, don’t tell people I travelled through time and space with her mother.”

Yvonne did laugh then, but Jackie wasn’t amused. “Charming.”

“I’ve got a reputation to uphold,” he protested. Some part of him was aware that antagonising his future mother-in-law was not a smart move, but his restraint had been stretched well past its breaking point today.

Yvonne stood abruptly and walked back to her office door. “Excuse me? Everyone? I thought I said stop the ghost shift. Who started the programme? But I ordered you to stop! Who’s doing that?” she asked, pointing to the levers which were slowly moving into the on position.

 _And it begins,_ the Doctor thought, a hole opening up in his stomach. Just like it always did, the thing humanity thought they could control was taking over. The levers in the white room kept moving closer to the on position, and Yvonne’s panic escalated.

The Doctor stood beside her and looked around the room. Three people, including the woman who’d announced the start of the ghost shift earlier, were typing at an unnaturally fast speed.

Yvonne walked to the middle of the room, still shouting orders that were being ignored. “Right, step away from the monitors, everyone. Gareth, Addy, stop what you’re doing, right now. Matt, step away from your desk. That’s an order! Stop the levers! Andrew!” Two men grabbed the levers and attempted to stop them manually, but the computer program was too strong. “Stop the levers!”

None of the workers typing seemed to notice Yvonne at all, no matter how high pitched her voice got. “What’s she doing?” the Doctor asked, walking over to the woman. He snapped his fingers in her face, but she didn’t even blink.

“Addy, step away from the desk,” Yvonne ordered. “Listen to me. Step away from the desk.”

He noticed then that Addy and the two men were both wearing two earpieces, whereas Yvonne and everyone else he’d seen only had one. A weight settled in his chest; now he knew what the ghosts had reminded him of.

“She can’t hear you,” he told Yvonne. “They’re overriding the system. We’re going into ghost shift.” The light in the room brightened to a frequency that would be painful to human eyes, and they all stared at the blank white wall.

“It’s the earpiece,” he explained, moving to stand behind Addy. “It’s controlling them. I’ve seen this before.” He pulled the sonic out of his jacket with regret. “Sorry. I’m so sorry.”

When he activated the sonic, all three partially cyberised humans screamed in pain and collapsed against their desks. “What happened?” Yvonne demanded. “What did you just do?”

“They’re dead,” he told her bluntly, the words leaving a sour taste in his mouth.

“You killed them,” Jackie accused.

He shook his head and started working on the computer to shut down the ghost shift. “Oh, someone else did that long before I got here.”

“But you killed them!”

“Jackie, I haven’t got time for this,” he spat out.

“What are those ear pieces?” Yvonne asked.

“Don’t,” he told her, moving to one of the other computers when he was unsuccessful in shutting things down from Addy’s.

“But they’re standard comms devices,” Yvonne protested. “How does it control them?”

“Trust me, leave them alone.”

“But what are they?” she asked, grabbing Addy’s and pulling on it. A long strand of sticky grey matter came out along with the earpiece. “Oh, God! It goes inside their brain.”

The light in the room was still getting brighter, no matter how frantically the Doctor worked to close the breach in the Void down. “What about the ghost shift?”

“Ninety percent there and still running,” Yvonne told him. “Can’t you stop it?”

He shook his head. “They’re still controlling it. They’ve hijacked the system.”

“Who’s they?”

“It might be a remote transmitter, but it’s got to be close by.” He pulled out the sonic and used it as a tracer. “I can trace it. Jackie, stay here!”

“Keep those levers down,” Yvonne ordered her staff. “Keep them offline.”

Out in the corridor, they passed two armed soldiers. Yvonne beckoned to them. “You two. You come with us.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Their party of four followed the signal from the sonic into a part of Torchwood Tower that seemed to be abandoned. “What’s down here?” the Doctor asked, eyeing the plastic curtains warily.

“I don’t, I don’t know. I think it’s building work. It’s just renovations.”

“You should go back.”

She huffed in exasperation. “Think again.”

They stepped slowly through the plastic until the sonic beeped rapidly, indicating they’d reached the source of the transmission.

“What is it? What’s down here?” Yvonne asked.

“Earpieces, ear pods. This world’s colliding with another, and I think I know which one.”

The familiar crash of metal feet against the ground confirmed his suspicions. Silhouettes appeared behind the plastic; one, two, three, six Cybermen surrounded them.

“What are they?” Yvonne asked, and he was slightly gratified by the note of fear he finally heard in her voice—even if it was too late.

“They came through first,” he explained as the Cybermen sliced through the plastic. “The advance guard… Cybermen!”

Over their bond, the Doctor could tell Rose had picked up on his fear. He focused on her and stretched his mind… she was just at the edge of his range, but if he concentrated, he could send her a short message.

 _It’s Cybermen,_ he told her when he knew he’d made contact.

The Cybermen stepped into formation, heedless of the bullets the soldiers were firing at them. The Doctor and Yvonne backed out the way they came in, but there was yet another Cyberman behind them, blocking the way out.

They were escorted back into the lever room, and the Doctor called out warnings to the humans sitting at the desks, and to Jackie. “Get away from the machines. Do what they say. Don’t fight them!”

He watched in horror as the Cybermen shot them down anyway. Jackie looked up at Yvonne. “What are they?”

But the Cyber Leader answered first. “We are the Cybermen. The ghost shift will be increased to one hundred percent.” He pushed a button on his chest, and the levers moved until the computer announced the system was online.

“Here come the ghosts,” the Doctor said grimly, squinting against the brilliant light.

Silvery figures blinked into existence, clearly standing in military formation. “But these Cybermen,” Jackie asked him quietly, “what’ve they got to do with the ghosts?”

“Do you never listen?” he retorted angrily. “A footprint doesn’t look like a boot.”

“Achieving full transfer,” the Cyber Leader announced, and the Cybermen pushed all the way through the Void and into planet Earth.

“They’re Cybermen. All of the ghosts are Cybermen. Millions of them, right across the world.”

Yvonne caught on to what he was saying first. “They’re invading the whole planet.”

The Doctor glared around the room at one of his most hated enemies. “It’s not an invasion; it’s too late for that. It’s a victory.”

 


	36. Chapter 36

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> An anonymous reviewer on fanfiction.net asked about Jack. That hasn't been forgotten, but it's still in the hands of the TARDIS. She's the one looking for him, and she hasn't told them where he is.

Staring at the sphere, Rose’s determination to be the Doctor’s anchor in this storm wavered a bit. He was projecting more anxiety than she’d felt from him since the TARDIS had given them an empathic connection, and considering they’d faced down the Devil since then, that said a lot about whatever he saw. She reached out for him, but though she could tell he was close, he was too far away for her to tell him anything.

Mickey stood by the door—and the impossibility of that hadn’t escaped Rose. She looked ahead, and the knot of timelines had twisted into a nexus of golden light that pulsed like it was trying to tear itself apart.

The steady hum in the room changed pitch, and she watched Rajesh get more agitated by the minute, as he tried and failed to make contact with Yvonne.

A loud bang shook the entire room. “It can’t be,” Rajesh murmured. He, Rose, and Mickey jogged toward the sphere, staring up at it. Maybe that had just been a fluke…

Another bang put paid to that notion.

Rajesh put on his glasses. “It’s active!” He ran to his computer terminal while the banging continued. “We’ve got a problem down here,” he yelled over the comms. “Yvonne, can you hear me?”

Rose and Mickey watched the sphere vibrate in midair. Whatever was inside that thing was looking to get out, that much was clear.

“Yvonne, for God’s sake. The sphere is active! The readings are going wild! It’s got weight, it’s got mass, an electromagnetic field. It exists!”

When Yvonne stayed silent, Rose had a feeling they were dealing with a situation of their own. She had said the ghost shift was cancelled; if it had started back up again, that would explain why the Doctor was so on edge.

Suddenly he pushed one thought over their bond. _It’s Cybermen._

The banging on the sphere turned ominous, rather than creepy. _Cybermen!_

She must have made some sound of distress, because Mickey put his hand on her shoulder. She looked up at him, and he grinned back. “It’s all right, babe. We’ve beaten them before; we can beat them again. That’s why I’m here. The fight goes on.”

His presence in this universe suddenly made sense. The last time she’d seen her best mate, he’d been in the parallel universe, taking on the Cybermen. Mickey and Jake and their friends must have tracked this sphere… or the ghosts… across the Void.

The sphere seemed to be breaking apart from the inside, and Rose grabbed Mickey’s hand. Each time it rattled and shook, she expected Cybermen to come marching out.

“We had them beaten, but then they escaped,” Mickey told her. “The Cybermen just vanished. They found a way through to this world, but so did we.”

Rose shook her head, even though the evidence was standing in front of her. “The Doctor said that was impossible.”

“Yeah, it’s not the first time he’s been wrong,” Mickey reminded her matter-of-factly.

“What’s inside that sphere?” she asked.

“No one knows. Cyber Leader, Cyber King, Emperor of the Cybermen. Whatever it is, he’s dead meat.”

Rose took in the changes in Mickey since the last time she’d seen him. He looked taller somehow, but she guessed that was because he’d finally found the confidence he’d been lacking most of his life. “It’s good to see you.”

He smiled, and for a second she saw the old, happy-go-lucky Mickey. “Yeah. It’s good to see you too.”

The screech of metal on metal grated on Rose’s ears. Mickey tossed off his lab coat and ear piece and stared up at the sphere in anticipation.

“Here we go.”

The sphere cracked open down the middle, and the top half slowly lifted up. Rose watched in trepidation as light shone out from the crack.

“I know what’s in there, and I’m ready for them,” Mickey said as the sphere continued to open. “I’ve got just the thing.” He ran over to the platform underneath the sphere and pulled a large gun out from under it.

“This is going to blast them to hell,” he told Rose and Rajesh, taking his place beside them again.

Rajesh looked at him in utter confusion. “Samuel, what are you doing?”

“The name’s Mickey. Mickey Smith. Defending the Earth.” He primed the weapon and aimed it at the sphere.

The sphere finally opened completely, and four figures rose out of it. Mickey took half a step back, his weapon still up. “That’s not Cybermen.”

In Rose’s mind, it was much, much worse. Four Daleks had entered the room. “Oh, my God.” She remembered what the Doctor had said about sending pictures over their bond and gave it a shot. His responding anger and dread told her it had worked.

“Location, Earth. Life forms detected. Exterminate!” The Daleks repeated their favourite word in chorus as the three humans took three steps back.

“Daleks!” Rose shouted above the din, and the hated mechanical voices stopped.

“You’re called Daleks.” Mustering all her courage, she walked slowly toward the black Dalek in the middle of the group and looked right into its eyestalk. “I know your name. Think about it; how can I know that?”

Rose slipped out of her lab coat and tossed it on the floor, hoping to convey a sense of command. “A human who knows about the Daleks and the Time War. If you want to know how, then keep us alive. That’s all I’m asking. Me and my friends.”

“Yeah, Daleks,” Mickey chimed in. “Time War. Me too.”

“Yeah. And me,” Rajesh agreed.

The Dalek’s eyestalk rotated as it looked at each of them in turn. “You will be necessary,” it decided, before turning to its cohorts. “Report. What is the status of the Genesis Ark?”

“Status, hibernation,” the Dalek on its right answered.

“Commence awakening. The Genesis Ark must be protected above all else.”

“The Daleks. You said they were all dead,” Mickey said, quietly enough that the Daleks wouldn’t hear.

“Never mind that,” Rose said having watched one of the Daleks place its plunger on a port outside the metal container they’d brought with them. “What the hell’s a Genesis Ark?”

The black Dalek turned back toward them. “Which of you is least important?”

Rose’s breathing sped up. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Which of you is least important?”

Mickey was looking at her, but she kept her attention focused on the Dalek, shaking her head in answer to their question. “No, we don’t work like that. None of us.”

The Dalek vibrated with frustration. “Designate the least important!” it insisted.

“This is my responsibility,” Rajesh said and stepped forward.

Rose grabbed at his arm. “No, you don’t.” They all knew what was likely to happen to the least important.

Rajesh shook her hand off and placed himself directly in front of the black Dalek. “I… Ah, I represent the Torchwood Institute.” He took his glasses off and straightened his back. “Anything you need, you come through me. Leave these two alone.”

“You will kneel.”

“What for?”

“Kneel.”

Rajesh turned back toward Rose and Mickey and knelt on the floor. One of the bronze Daleks Rose had started to think of as a minion to the black Dalek rolled toward him.

“The Daleks need information about current Earth history,” the black Dalek explained.

Rajesh looked at it over his shoulder. “Yeah, well, I can give you a certain amount of intelligence but nothing that will compromise homeland security.”

“Speech is not necessary. We will extract brainwaves.”

“Don’t— I—” He looked around wildly as three of the Daleks rolled toward him, their plungers extended. “I’ll tell you everything you need!”

Rose watched in horror as the plungers covered Rajesh’s face and sucked, the man’s cries for help fading after a minute. Mickey started to rush at them, but she grabbed his arm and yanked him back, hiding her face in his shoulder so he wouldn’t be able to attack the Daleks, and so she wouldn’t have watch Rajesh die.

When their plungers released Rajesh, his skull was blackened and shrivelled up. “His mind spoke of a second species invading Earth infected by the superstition of ghosts,” the black Dalek said.

“You didn’t need to kill him,” Rose said angrily.

“Neither did we need him alive.” The utterly pragmatic answer chilled Rose.

“Dalek Thay, investigate outside,” the black Dalek ordered.

“I obey.”

Rose’s mind whirled as she watched one of the bronze Daleks roll out of the sphere room. _Since when do Daleks have names?_

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Beeping caught the Doctor’s attention, and he looked down at Addy’s computer terminal. The repeating announcement that the sphere had activated added another layer of bad to what was already bad. Rose was in that room with the sphere, and who knew how many Cybermen were inside?

The Cyber Leader was still looking at his invasion force when the Doctor started talking. “But I don’t understand. The Cybermen don’t have the technology to build a Void ship. That’s way beyond you. How did you create that sphere?”

“The sphere is not ours.”

“What?” The simplest answer was often the correct one, but in this case, it opened up a world of dangerous possibilities. He knew of only a few races who had experimented with travel through the Void.

“The sphere broke down the barriers between worlds. We only followed. Its origin is unknown.”

“Then what’s inside it?” he asked, both hearts pounding furiously.

“Rose is down there,” Jackie said, speaking his worst fear out loud.

Cold fear broke through from Rose, and the Doctor raked his hands through his hair. Whatever was in the sphere—and he had a horrible suspicion he knew what it was—she was deathly afraid of it.

She reached across their bond and sent him an image he would recognise anywhere. The Doctor clenched his jaw against the desire to shout at the sick mind who had designed this. Cybermen and Daleks both, and Rose trapped where he couldn’t get to her.

“What’s down there?” Jackie asked. “She was in that room with the sphere. What’s happened to Rose?”

The Doctor glared at her, unwilling or unable to give voice to the reality.

But when Jackie put her hands to her mouth and choked back a sob, he pushed off the wall and moved to rest a hand on her back. “I’ll find her,” he promised. “I brought you here, I’ll get you both out, you and Rose. Jackie, look at me. Look at me,” he insisted, and she finally lifted her head. He stared into her eyes, letting her see how much he meant what he was saying. “I promise you. I give you my word.”

The Cyber Leader marched into Yvonne’s office. “You will talk to your central world authority and order global surrender.”

“Oh, do some research,” she said haughtily. “We haven’t got a central world authority.”

“You have now. I will speak on all global wavelengths. This broadcast is for humankind,” he said, and the Doctor realised the Cybermen were transmitting this message live.

He tuned out when the Cyber Leader started the tired old Cyberman recruitment speech and used the time to pull out his 3D glasses. As he’d suspected, the Cyberman was covered in Void stuff.

The amount of Void stuff now present in this universe would make the whole multiverse unstable, even if he managed to seal the breach. _Unless there’s a way to remove the infection before I cauterise the wound…_

He tucked the glasses away and went over the window to stare down at London. The first hint of flames appeared just below them in Tower Hamlets, and he looked over his shoulder at the Cyberman.

“I don’t think this is going quite as you expected.”

Jackie and Yvonne turned around, and a moment later they were joined at the window by the Cyber Leader. “I ordered surrender,” he said when more fires broke out, and there would have been confusion in his voice if he hadn’t been stripped of all emotion.

“They’re not taking instructions.” The Doctor poured all of his anger and fear into his words, glad to finally have an outlet. “Don’t you understand? You’re on every street. You’re in their homes—you’ve got their children! Of course they’re going to fight.”

The crashing metallic sound of Cybermen marching healed the approach of another squadron. “Scans detect unknown technology active within Sphere chamber.”

“Cybermen will investigate,” the Cyber Leader ordered.

The Doctor, Jackie, and Yvonne stood in the corner while the Cybermen headed for the sphere room. “Doctor, whatever’s down there, could it help us?” Jackie whispered.

He looked at her and let her see his anger and helplessness. Her lips quivered again, but she pressed them together and nodded.

“Units open visual link,” the Cyber Leader ordered. On the desk, Yvonne’s laptop turned on, displaying the corridor near the sphere room. “Visual contact established.”

As the Cybermen walked around the corner, the Doctor recognised the Dalek’s faint hum. He gathered his restraint and managed not to curse when it rolled into view.

“Identify yourselves,” it demanded.

The two Cybermen stopped in the doorway. “You will identify first.”

“State your identity,” the Dalek insisted.

“You will identify first.”

“Identify!”

“That answer is unacceptable and illogical. You will modify.”

The sneer in the Dalek’s voice was obvious. “Daleks do not take orders.”

“You have identified as Daleks.”

“Outline resembles the inferior species known as Cybermen.”

“Rose said about the Daleks,” Jackie whispered in his ear. “She was terrified of them. What have they done to her, Doctor? Is she dead?”

Rose wasn’t dead. He’d know if she was dead. But that didn’t mean they weren’t planning to kill her as soon as this little exchange was over.

The Doctor wheeled around to face Jackie. “Phone,” he demanded through gritted teeth, not wanting to capture the attention of the Cybermen. Jackie just looked at him, but when he repeated himself, she pulled her mobile from her pocket and gave it to him.

His fingers shook as he punched in Rose’s number. Timelines were crystallising in a way that left very few chances for a happy ending for anyone. The possibility of losing Rose when they were already bonded was… unpleasant, at best. A provisional bond could be dissolved, but breaking one by force would be painful.

The phone rang once, then twice, and then it connected. “She’s answered. She’s alive,” he said for Jackie’s sake. _And free enough to be able to answer,_ he added for his own. Then the next question came to mind. “Why haven’t they killed her?”

“Well, don’t complain!”

“They must need her for something,” he explained to Jackie, listening to the conversation between the Daleks and the Cybermen through the phone connection.

“We must protect the Genesis Ark,” a Dalek announced.

“The Genesis Ark?” he repeated, wracking his memory for such a device.

Holding the phone to his ear with his shoulder, the Doctor reached into his pocket and found his 3D glasses again. The single Dalek staring down the Cybermen carried just as much Void stuff as the Cybermen, if not more, and the first inklings of an idea stirred in the back of his mind.

“Our species are similar, though your design is inelegant,” one of the Cybermen stated.

“Daleks have no concept of elegance.”

“This is obvious. But consider, our technologies are compatible. Cybermen plus Daleks. Together, we could upgrade the universe.”

“You propose an alliance?”

“This is correct.”

The Cybermen might have taken the tone for interest, but the Doctor was intimately familiar with the scorn of a Dalek. If you were convinced you were genetically superior to the rest of the universe, why would you ally yourself with anyone?

“Request denied.”

Both Cybermen raised their weapons arms. “Hostile elements will be deleted.” They fired multiple shots at the Dalek, but none of them came close to piercing the polycarbide shell.

“Exterminate!” the Dalek called out. Two seconds later, both Cybermen lay dead in the corridor.

The Doctor watched uneasily as the Cyber Leader marched around the room angrily. “Open visual link,” he ordered. The computer monitor flickered once, and then a new visual link was established, this time to the inside of the sphere room. “Daleks, be warned. You have declared war upon the Cybermen.”

The Doctor swallowed hard when he saw Rose standing behind the Daleks.

“This is not war,” the black Dalek retorted. “This is pest control.”

“We have five million Cybermen. How many are you?”

“Four.”

“You would destroy the Cybermen with four Daleks?” the Cyber Leader said disbelievingly.

“We would destroy the Cybermen with one Dalek.”

If he was a betting man (and if the situation wasn’t so serious), the Doctor would have placed money on the Daleks. He had yet to meet a species who surpassed them for cruel efficiency.

“You are superior in only one respect,” the Dalek continued.

“What is that?”

The Doctor moved so he was standing in front of the webcam and made eye contact with Rose. Even on the tiny laptop monitor, he could see her take a breath of relief. He gave her a half smile, then casually paced across the room.

“You are better at dying. Raise communications barrier!”

The signal on the phone went dead, and he handed it back to Jackie. “Lost her.” Rose’s courage and pride radiated over their bond, and he let her optimism balance his suddenly dark predictions.

The Doctor watched as the Cybermen at the top of the tower began making preparations for conversions and fighting the Daleks. A union between the Cybermen and the Daleks was definitely a whole different variety of bad, but a war between them was only marginally better.

“Quarantine the Sphere chamber,” the Cyber Leader ordered. “Start emergency upgrading. Begin with these personnel.”

“No, you can’t do this!” Yvonne cried as they dragged her away. “We surrendered! We surrendered!”

“This one,” the Cyber Leader said, indicating for the Doctor to be brought forward. “His increased adrenaline suggests that he has vital Dalek information.”

The Doctor watched as Rose’s mother was dragged off toward the conversion chambers. “Stop them!” she cried out. “I don’t want to go! You promised me! You gave me your word!”

“I demand you leave that woman alone,” the Doctor said, trying to pull free. “I won’t help you if you hurt her.” He looked past the Cybermen to Jackie. “Jackie, don’t fight. I’ll think of something.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Rose had known the Doctor was still alive even before her phone rang, but seeing him on the screen, whole and in one piece, allowed her to relax just a bit. As long as they were both alive…

“Wait!” one of the bronze Daleks shouted, just after the screen went blank. “Rewind image by nine rells. Identify grid seven gamma frame. This male registers as enemy.”

Rose was confused for a moment, but then she remembered what the Doctor had told her, that Daleks could see in four dimensions. _They can tell he’s a Time Lord._

They zoomed in on the image of the Doctor when he’d looked directly at her, and she smiled again.

The black Dalek’s eyestalk spun around to look at Rose. “The female’s heartbeat has increased.”

“Yeah, tell me about it,” Mickey said sardonically.

“Identify him.”

“All right, then, if you really want to know.” She nodded proudly toward the screen. “That’s the Doctor.” All four Daleks rolled backward at least two paces, and she smiled a real smile for the first time since she’d entered the sphere room. “Five million Cybermen, easy. One Doctor? Now you’re scared.”

“Cyber threat irrelevant,” a Dalek minion said. “Concentrate on the Genesis Ark.”

“Why are we being kept alive?” Mickey asked.

Something about the way the Daleks were surrounding the Genesis Ark, trying to wake it up, triggered Rose’s memory. “They might need me.”

“What? What is it?”

Instead of answering, Rose stared at where the Daleks were connected to the Genesis Ark. If they were feeding it artron radiation, then she was currently the biggest power source in the room—the biggest source in the building, outside of the TARDIS.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

After Jackie was taken and he was left in the office, the Doctor sat staring into space. Just five hours ago, he’d been with Rose at the bazaar, planning for the future and looking forward to a visit with Jackie.

Now Rose was trapped in a room with four Daleks, Jackie had been taken to be converted by Cybermen, and he was alone again.

“You are proof,” the Cyber Leader said.

The Doctor looked at him wearily. “Of what?” he asked, not following the non sequitur.

“That emotions destroy you.”

“Yeah, I am,” he agreed readily.

A faint whooshing caught his attention, and he looked behind the Cyber Leader into the ghost room. The faint outline of six humanoid figures was appearing through the Void.

“Mind you, I quite like hope. Hope’s a good emotion. And here it comes.”

Six people dressed in full combat gear broke through. Three of them turned on the spot, taking out the Cybermen behind them. The others kept their weapons trained on the Cyber Leader.

Seeing what was coming, the Doctor dove into the corner of the room and covered his head with his hands. A moment later he heard the unmistakable pop of the Cyber Leader’s head exploding, and he stepped tentatively out of the office.

“Doctor? Good to see you again.”

The point man took his mask off, and the Doctor blinked in confusion. “Jake?”

“The Cybermen came through from one world to another, and so did we.”

_This was—that was—why do humans insist on acting like crossing the Void is like taking a Sunday drive?_

He pulled out his 3D glasses again, looking at Jake as he shouted out orders to his squad. Of course, all of them were covered in Void stuff. Only now he knew they were carrying Void stuff into their world too, destabilising the multiverse even more.

When Jake was done giving his orders, the Doctor started in on him. “You can’t just, just, just hop from one world to another. You can’t.”

“We just did. With these,” Jake said, tossing him a round disc with a yellow button at the centre.

“But that’s impossible,” the Doctor said, staring at the device in the palm of his hand. “You can’t have this sort of technology.”

“We’ve got our own version of Torchwood. They developed it. Do you want to come and see?”

Jake punched the button on his chest, and the Doctor realised a moment too late that they were all linked. “No!” he shouted, not wanting to go anywhere until he’d rescued Rose and Jackie.

Fourteen seconds later, they reappeared in a room that was the mirror image of the one they’d just left, well, a mirror image if the ghost room had been the site of a major battle. The lights were dimmed, and debris littered the floor.

“Parallel Earth, parallel Torchwood,” Jake said. “Except we found out what the Institute was doing and the People’s Republic took control.”

Frankly, the Doctor didn’t care what the people in this world had done. The people in his life were counting on him to save them, and he couldn’t do it from the other side of the Void.

“I’ve got to get back. Rose is in danger, and her mother.” There was an ache in his head where his bond with Rose reached for her.

“That’d be Jackie,” a man said, and the Doctor looked over to see Pete Tyler enter the room with two more operatives. “My wife in a parallel universe. And as for you, Doctor, at least this time I know who you are.”

Looking at Pete was almost painful, with the way the timelines danced around him. But he seemed to be in charge, and that meant he could send him home.

“Right, yes, fine, hooray. But I’ve got to get back, right now.”

But Pete only heard the order, not the panic in his voice. “No, you’re not in charge here. This is our world, not yours. And you’re going to listen for once.”

The Doctor was stunned speechless. Pete led him to the parallel version of that blank white wall. _I wonder…_ From his universe, he’d been able to sense how thin the walls of the worlds were at this point. From this side, could he…?

He pressed himself against the wall as tightly as he could. The ache in his head eased when his mind found Rose on the other side of the Void. It was just the faintest trace of her, but it was enough to soothe the clawing emptiness.

If Pete thought his behaviour was strange, he didn’t comment. Instead, he just started talking to the Doctor’s back while he stayed pressed against the wall.

“When you left this world, you warned us there’d be more Cybermen. So we sealed them inside the factories.”

“Except people argued,” Jake said. “Said they were living. We should help them.”

The Doctor turned and leaned his back against the wall, still close enough to feel Rose and the TARDIS, but facing Pete and Jake. He looked at Pete, guessing how the man would have felt about helping the Cybermen when they’d taken his wife from him.

Pete took over the story. “And the debate went on. But all that time, the Cybermen made plans. Infiltrated this version of Torchwood, mapped themselves onto your world, and then vanished.”

“When was this?”

“Three years ago.”

The Doctor shoved his hands in his pockets and started pacing aimlessly, staying as close as possible to the wall. It wasn’t the knowledge that time passed differently that concerned him; that was really nothing new. But if the Cybermen had been planning this for over three years, then they had probably planned for every contingency.

“It’s taken them three years to cross the void, but we can pop to and fro in a second. Must be the sheer mass of five million Cybermen crossing all at once,” he mused.

Pete huffed in amusement. “Yeah, Mickey said you’d rattle off that sort of stuff.”

The Doctor raised his eyebrows and looked from Pete to Jake. “Oh, where is the Mickey boy?”

“He went ahead first,” Pete said. “Any chance to go and find Miss Rose Tyler.”

The faintest reminder of old jealousy sprang up, but he squashed it ruthlessly. “She’s your daughter,” he told Pete instead. “You do know that? Did Mickey explain?”

“She’s not mine. She’s the child of a dead man.”

The Doctor rolled his eyes, but he didn’t argue—not yet.

“Come look, Doctor.” Pete beckoned him toward the windows.

The Doctor leaned back against the wall and shook his head. “Tell me about it,” he invited instead.

Confusion furrowed Pete’s brow, but he nodded slowly. “It’s a world of peace. They’re calling this The Golden Age,” Pete said.

That phrase rang a bell. “Who’s the president now?”

“A woman called Harriet Jones.”

“Oof. I’d keep an eye on her.”

“But it’s a lie,” Pete said, uninterested in his commentary on Harriet Jones. “Temperatures have risen by two degrees in the past six months. The ice caps are melting. They’re saying all of London will be flooded. That’s not just global warming, is it?”

“No.” That was exactly what he’d feared would happen if people continued to cross the Void willy-nilly. Without the Time Lords to stabilise the connection, all dimensions would eventually collapse.

“It’s the breach.”

“I’ve been trying to tell you. Travel between parallel worlds is impossible. Then the Daleks break down the walls with the sphere.” It was always the Daleks.

Pete cocked his head. “Daleks?”

“Then the Cybermen travelled across, then you lot. Those discs.” He pointed to the yellow button on Jake’s chest. “Every time you jump from one reality to another, you rip a hole in the universe. This planet is starting to boil,” he said, pointing wildly toward the window. “Keep going and both worlds will fall into the Void.”

“But you can stop it?” Pete asked desperately. “The famous Doctor. You can seal the breach?”

_Only one problem with that…_ “Leaving five million Cybermen stranded on my Earth.”

Pete shook his head. “That’s your problem. I’m protecting this world, and this world only.”

The words were callous, but the Doctor knew they came from a man who’d been hardened by loss. Maybe his compassion could be reawakened if he finally got something back.

The Doctor pursed his lips. “Hmm. Pete Tyler. I knew you when you were dead.” Pete blinked, the odd comment hitting him just as the Doctor had hoped. “Now here you are, fighting the fight—alone.” He levelled a gaze at the other man. “There is a chance, back on my world… Jackie Tyler might still be alive.”

“My wife died.” Pete’s voice was cold, but the Doctor saw both grief and hope in his eyes.

Of all the timelines swirling around Pete, the only thing he could see clearly was a meeting between this world’s Pete and his Jackie. “Her husband died. Good match.”

But Pete refused to discuss it. “There’s more important things at stake. Doctor, help us.”

“What, close the breach?” he asked incredulously. The Doctor beat his head lightly against the wall. “Stop the Cybermen? Defeat the Daleks? Do you believe I can do that?”

Pete smiled for the first time since the Doctor had arrived in his world. “Yes.”

The simple earnestness of the reply bolstered the Doctor’s flagging hope. “Maybe that’s all I need.” He grinned. “Off we go, then!”

Jake handed the dimension hopper back to him, and with a quick nod, he hit the button that sent them all back to the Doctor’s world.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Mickey casually turned away from the Daleks and held out a round disc with a yellow button in the middle. “I could transport out of here, but it only carries one, and I’m not leaving you.”

Rose smiled, and then pressed her lips together in pain when her bond with the Doctor suddenly stretched until it was the thinnest of threads.

Mickey put a hand on her shoulder and bent down to look her in the eye. “What’s wrong?”

After taking a few deep breaths, she thought she could speak without whimpering in pain. “Something’s happened to the Doctor.” Her mind reached and pulled in ways she’d never felt before.

Mickey eyed her doubtfully. “How can you tell?”

She bit her lip; this was not how she’d imagined telling her friends she was engaged. “We’ve got a bond,” she said as quietly as possible, not wanting the Daleks to overhear. Mickey looked at her blankly, so she tapped the side of her head. “Only now it’s almost gone.”

Her mate accepted that without a word. “Well, what’s it feel like? Is he dead?”

The stretching sensation eased slightly; the Doctor was there again. “No… it’s more like he’s just really, really far away.”

“That’d be Jake then,” Mickey told her. “I sent him a message earlier when the action started, and he said he was gonna take the Doctor back to our world, show him what’s going on there.”

Rose’s tension eased a little. “That makes sense.”

Mickey pointed over his shoulder at the Genesis Ark. “Have you figured out what’s going on here?”

She nodded. “Whatever’s inside that Ark is waking up, and I’ve seen this happen before. The first time I saw a Dalek, it was broken. It was dying. But I touched it.” Rose remembered the way her palm had burned when she’d laid it against the Dalek, and how quickly that one touch had revived it. “The moment I did that, I brought it back to life.”

Mickey still looked confused, so she tried to explain it a little better. “See, the Doctor said, when you travel in time in the TARDIS, you soak up all this background radiation. It’s harmless. It’s just there. But in the Time War, the Daleks evolved so they could use it as a power supply.”

“I love it when you talk technical,” Mickey said, a playful smirk on his face.

“Shut up,” she told him, irritated he wasn’t taking this seriously.

He bobbed his head, and she looked over his shoulder at the Genesis Ark. “If the Daleks have got something inside that thing, and it needs waking up…”

They stared at the device in the middle of the room, the pulsing hum in the background suddenly loud in the absence of conversation.

“They need you,” Mickey said after a moment.

Rose blinked and looked at him. “You’ve travelled in time. Either one of us would do.”

“But why would they build something they can’t open themselves?”

“The technology is stolen,” the black Dalek answered.

Rose realised their conversation hadn’t been as private as she’d thought. _Glad I didn’t say anything about Bad Wolf or my changed DNA then._

“The Ark is not of Dalek design.”

“Then who built it?” Rose asked.

“The Time Lords. This is all that survives of their home world.”

Rose could think of several reasons the Daleks would’ve stolen Time Lord technology, and none of them were good. “What’s inside?”

All four Daleks circled the Ark with their plungers out. “The future.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The return trip through the Void took only eleven seconds, and the knowledge that travel between the worlds was becoming easier worried the Doctor, because it meant the walls had unravelled almost completely.

The Doctor took a deep breath as soon as they were back in his universe, feeling the bond he shared with Rose snap back into place. He could tell his absence had affected her just as strongly, and the TARDIS as well.

The Doctor shoved his hopper into his pocket and jogged over to Yvonne’s desk. “First of all, I need to make a phone call. You don’t mind?”

His hearts were beating a quick staccato as he dialled Jackie’s number. _Please pick up, please pick up!_

“Oh, my God, help me,” she begged him.

He’d never been so glad to hear her voice. “Jackie, you’re alive. Listen.”

“They tried to download me but I ran away!”

“Shush. Listen, tell me. Where are you?”

“I don’t know. Staircase.”

“Yeah, which one? Is there any sort of sign? Anything to identify it?”

“Yes, a fire extinguisher.”

The Doctor pinched the bridge of his nose. “Yeah, that helps.”

“Oh, wait a minute. It says N3.”

“North corner, staircase three. Just keep low, we’re trying our best.”

“No, don’t leave me.”

“I’ve got to go. I’m sorry.”

The Doctor set the phone back in the cradle and looked at Pete. “Jacqueline Andrea Suzette Tyler.”

“She’s not my wife.”

The Doctor rocked back on his heels and smirked; did Pete realise his arguments were getting weaker and weaker? “I was at the wedding. You got her name wrong.”

He left a startled looking Pete to ponder over yet another similarity between this world’s Jackie and the Jackie he’d known.

It was time for the next phase of his plan. He hopped over to Jake and took the weapon from him, turning it over in his hands while he explained what he was going to do. “Now then, Jakey boy, if I can open up the bonding chamber on this thing, it’ll work on polycarbide.”

“What’s polycarbide?”

“Skin of a Dalek.”

Jake and Pete looked on while he used the sonic to adapt the weapon. “What exactly is a Dalek?” Jake asked.

“One of the most purely evil races in the galaxy,” the Doctor answered, his lips drawing into a thin line. “A mutated creature living inside a large metal shell that somewhat resembles a pepper pot. Equipped with a plunger and a death ray—and don’t underestimate the plunger arm. Currently holding Rose hostage.” He hoisted the retrofitted weapon, hefting it slightly to get a feel for its balance.

“I’m sorry, Doctor, but I don’t quite understand how you’re planning to get anywhere near the Daleks with this,” Pete said.

“Ah, that’s where I make good on a little promise I made to the Cybermen. They’re trying to find a way to get rid of the Daleks themselves.”

“The enemy of my enemy is my friend,” Pete said, his mouth twisted into a grimace.

“Something like that, yeah.” The Doctor handed the weapon back to Jake and pulled a piece of paper out of Yvonne’s desk, attaching it to a pointer he found.

Jake and Pete looked at each other and he knew they thought he was crazy, but they shrugged in resignation. “Excellent. Follow me, but stay out of sight.”

The Doctor led the way toward a corridor that wasn’t being kept secure by Jake’s group. Holding a finger to his lips, he told Pete and Jake to be quiet, and he peeked around the corner.

Three Cybermen stood at the end of the hallway, and he took a deep breath and slowly stuck his makeshift flag out, following it cautiously. “Sorry. No white flag. I only had a sheet of A4. Same difference.”

The Cybermen hit their chests in unison, then marched toward the Doctor with their right arms extended. “Do you surrender?”

The Doctor placed his flag over his shoulder and swaggered toward the Cybermen. “I surrender unto you,” he said, coming nose to nose with one of the robots. “A very good idea.”


	37. Chapter 37

_The future._ That’s what the black Dalek said was inside the Genesis Ark. Rose’s mind ran so fast through the possibilities that it nearly tripped, not slowing even when she felt the Doctor return from the parallel world.

The only future the Daleks anticipated with any pleasure was total domination of the universe. Four Daleks couldn’t do that alone, and as Bad Wolf, she’d destroyed all the remaining Daleks in this universe. To move forward with their plans, these four would need to create new Daleks.

“Final stage of awakening,” a Dalek announced, and they all rolled slowly away from the Ark and over to Rose. “Your handprint will open the Ark.”

Rose had made that mistake once; she wouldn’t make it again. “Well tough, because I’m not doing it.”

The black Dalek’s death ray rotated until it was pointed at Mickey. “Obey or the male will die.”

 _Rose, I’m coming,_ the Doctor told her, and she hid a grin.

“I can’t let them,” Rose muttered, walking toward the Ark quickly as she formulated a plan.

“Rose, don’t,” Mickey told her, not realising she had no intention of actually opening the Ark.

“Place your hand upon the casket.”

“All right! You’re going to kill us anyway, so what the hell?”

The only stalling tactic she came up with was the old adage of keeping your captors talking. “If you ah… escaped the Time War,” she teased, slowly approaching the black Dalek, “don’t you want to know what happened?”

“Place your hand—”

Rose played her ace. “What happened to the Emp’ror?” she added cockily, popping the p.

“The Emperor survived?”

“Till he met me,” she told him smugly, then tilted her head down to stare into its eyestalk. “Because if these are going to be my last words, then you’re going to listen. I met the Emperor, and I took the Time Vortex and I poured it into his head and turned him into dust. Do you get that?” The black Dalek was silent. “The God of all Daleks, and I destroyed him. Ha!”

“You will be exterminated!”

“Oh now, hold on, wait a minute.”

Rose’s heart soared when the Doctor entered the room wearing crazy 3D glasses, but the Daleks weren’t quite as happy to see him. “Alert, alert. You are the Doctor,” the black Dalek said.

“Sensors report he is unarmed,” another announced.

He swaggered into the room as if he owned the place. “That’s me. Always.”

“Then you are powerless.”

“Not me. Never.” He took the glasses off and glanced over at Rose. “How are you?”

She grinned up at him, almost giddy with relief at seeing him in the flesh. “Oh, same old, you know.” Rose sensed a flare of guilt that the Doctor quickly tamped down, and she rolled her eyes. _Yeah, I didn’t mean being in danger is that typical,_ she told him, and he nodded.

“Good. And Mickity McMickey. Nice to see you!” The two men bumped fists.

“And you, boss.”

“Social interaction will cease!”

“How did you survive the Time War?” the black Dalek asked, taking control of the conversation.

For once, the memories didn’t overwhelm the Doctor. “By fighting. On the front line. I was there at the fall of Arcadia.” The second city of Gallifrey, and the place where the Daleks had finally broken through the sky trenches. “Someday I might even come to terms with that. But you lot ran away!”

“We had to survive.”

The Doctor rocked back on his heels. “The last four Daleks in existence. So what’s so special about you?”

“Doctor, they’ve got names,” Rose told him, and his left eyebrow shot up. “I mean, Daleks don’t have names, do they? One of them said they—”

“I am Dalek Thay.”

“Dalek Sec,” the black Dalek said.

“Dalek Jast.”

“Dalek Caan.”

He looked around at the four Daleks with new eyes. “So that’s it! At last. The Cult of Skaro. I thought you were just a legend.”

“Who are they?” Rose asked.

“A secret order above and beyond the Emperor himself.” The Doctor meandered around the room as he explained, keeping a careful eye on all the Daleks as he casually examined the large container in the middle of the room. Something about the shape and size seemed familiar, but he couldn’t pinpoint what it was. “Their job was to imagine, think as the enemy thinks. Even dared to have names. All to find new ways of killing.”

“But that thing, they said it was yours,” Mickey said, nodding at the container. “I mean, Time Lords. They built it. What does it do?”

The Doctor looked at it more carefully. If it was Time Lord… The shape still bothered him, but he didn’t recognise it. “I don’t know. Never seen it before.”

“But it’s Time Lord,” Rose said in confusion.

He cocked his head slightly to acknowledge the possibility. “Both sides had secrets.” He looked back at Dalek Sec. “What is it? What have you done?”

“Time Lord science will restore Dalek supremacy,” said Dalek Sec.

“What does that mean? What sort of Time Lord science?” the Doctor asked, leaning toward its eyestalk. “What do you mean?”

Rose touched their bond gently, and he turned toward her. “They said one touch from a time traveller will wake it up.”

That cleared up a few of his questions and raised others. “Technology using the one thing a Dalek can’t do. Touch.” He leaned closer to Sek’s eyestalk, staring it down. “Sealed inside your casing. Not feeling anything ever, from birth to death, locked inside a cold metal cage. Completely alone. That explains your voice. No wonder you scream.”

“The Doctor will open the Ark!”

He backed away from Dalek Sec, giggling madly to cover his very purposeful movement. So far, everything was going exactly as he’d planned.

“The Doctor will not.”

“You have no way of resisting.”

“Well, you got me there. Although there is always this,” he said, pulling the sonic out of his pocket.

“A sonic probe?” Condescension dripped from the Dalek’s voice.

“That’s screwdriver,” the Doctor corrected emphatically.

“It is harmless.”

_You’re going to blast the doors open?_

“Oh, yes,” the Doctor said, answering both Rose and Dalek Sec. “Harmless is just the word.” He flipped the screwdriver in the air with his left hand, catching it in his right. “That’s why I like it. Doesn’t kill, doesn’t wound, doesn’t maim. But I’ll tell you what it does do. It is very good at opening doors.”

The Doctor activated the sonic screwdriver, and every door in the sphere room burst open. Rose, Mickey, and the Doctor hit the floor as Jake and a Cyberman entered the room together, both shooting modified weapons at the Daleks.

“Alert. Casing impaired. Casing impaired,” Dalek Jast cried out.

“Rose, get out!” the Doctor yelled, then watched with his hearts in his throat as she was nearly killed when she stood up. Pete crept toward her, tucked her under his arm, and escorted her to safety.

The Doctor ran to the door behind them, only noticing Mickey was still firing at the Daleks when Rose called out to him.

“Mickey, come on!” She motioned for him to follow them, and Mickey started to retreat from the room.

“Adapt to weaponry,” Dalek Jast said.

“Firepower restored!” Dalek Sec shot a Cyberman, who went down immediately.

As he fell, he pushed another Cyberman down, and, like dominoes, that Cyberman knocked Mickey’s legs out from under him. The Doctor saw the moment Mickey broke his fall against the Genesis Ark, leaving a glowing hand print on the casing.

Then Mickey was racing out of the room, and the Doctor sealed the door as best he could. “Jake, check the stairwell,” he ordered. “The rest of you, come on.”

The Doctor led Rose, Pete, and Mickey toward the north corner of the tower at a steady run. Mickey moved up beside him. “I just fell, I didn’t mean it!”

“Mickey, without us, they’d have opened it by force. To do that, they’d have blown up the sun, so you’ve done us a favour.” He planted a kiss on the other man’s forehead and then yelled, “Now, run!”

They were almost to the staircase when they saw two Cybermen ahead. “You will be upgraded,” one said to someone just out of sight.

“No, but you can’t. Please.”

Pete shot down both Cybermen before anyone else recognised Jackie’s voice. The Doctor watched Jackie hesitantly stepped over the smoking piles of metal, and saw the exact moment she recognised the man who’d saved her life.

“Pete?” She flinched back in confusion.

“Hello, Jacks,” Pete said, and the automatic use of her nickname told the Doctor that all his claims about this not being his wife were just posturing.

Jackie shook her head and stared at the Doctor. “I said there were ghosts, but that’s not fair. Why him?”

Pete lowered his weapon and held his hands out in a non-threatening gesture. “I’m not a ghost.”

She blinked repeatedly, as if she expected him to disappear. “But you’re dead. You died twenty years ago, Pete.”

The Doctor stepped up beside Pete to explain. “It’s Pete from a different universe. There are parallel worlds, Jackie,” he said, repeating the explanation they’d given when Mickey hadn’t returned with them. “Every single decision we make creates a parallel existence, a different dimension where—”

“Oh, you can shut up.” The Doctor nodded and stepped out of the way, knowing for once that he wasn’t needed.

She stared at Pete, and there was something in the way she looked at him that tugged at the Doctor’s hearts. “Oh, you look old,” she said finally.

“You don’t,” Pete said with the honest admiration of a man in love.

“How can you be standing there?”

Pete shrugged. “I just got lucky. Lived my life. You were left on your own. You didn’t marry again, or…”

“There was never anyone else.” Jackie sighed heavily. “Twenty years, though. Look at me; I never left that flat. Did nothing with myself.”

“You brought her up.” He nodded at Rose. “Rose Tyler. That’s not bad.”

“Yeah.”

The Doctor took Rose’s hand. _Not bad at all._

“In my world, it worked,” explained Pete. “All those daft little plans of mine, they worked. Made me rich.”

“I don’t care about that.” Jackie shook her head, then looked at Pete curiously. “How rich?”

“Very.”

“I don’t care about that,” she repeated. “How very?”

Everyone laughed and rolled their eyes at the very Jackie series of questions, but the humour seemed to pull Pete out of the moment.

“Thing is though, Jacks, you’re not my wife.”

Jackie flinched again, this time in pain. The Doctor thought he saw tears in her eyes, but like her daughter, she was too strong to give him the satisfaction of seeing her cry.

Pete shook his head. “I’m sorry, but you’re not. I mean, we both… You know, it’s just sort of… Oh, come here.”

The Doctor didn’t see what was surely a passionate reunion. His eyes were fixed on the other Tyler in the room. _How long are you going to stay with me?_ he asked, needing to hear her promise again.

Rose traced his left eyebrow with her finger, then cupped his jaw in her hand. _Forever,_ she said firmly, and the word felt just as right as it had on Makuyu. Her hand shifted to the back of his neck, and she rose up on her toes to brush her lips against his.

“Oi!” Mickey exclaimed. “Look, I like being the third wheel as much as the next bloke, but shouldn’t we be focusing on saving the world?”

Pete set Jackie back down on her feet and looked over at him. “What’s the next step, Doctor?”

The idea he’d had earlier developed into a plan. “Follow me,” he told them, leading the way toward the warehouse Yvonne had shown him only a few hours ago.

They could hear the fight from the corridor, and the Doctor opened the door and peeked inside cautiously. The crate he needed was only twenty feet away, but it was twenty feet with nothing to use for cover.

He dove into the room and crawled army style toward the crate, then reached up at grabbed the two magnaclamps. They were heavier than he’d remembered, and his arms jerked to the ground before he steadied himself, sliding awkwardly back to the door.

“Where to now, boss?” Mickey asked, but the Doctor was already opening the doors again, wearing his 3D glasses. The Daleks were leading the Genesis Ark through the middle of the warehouse.

“Override roof mechanism,” ordered Dalek Sec. The roof of the warehouse slowly retracted, and the Daleks with the Genesis Ark flew toward the open air.

“What’re they doing? Why do they need to get outside?” Rose asked.

“Time Lord science. What Time Lord science?” The Doctor ripped his 3D glasses off. “What is it?”

Whatever it was, they weren’t going to be able to see from down here. “We’ve got to see what it’s doing.” He picked up the magnaclamps and started running toward the staircase. “We’ve got to go back up. Come on! All of you. Top floor!”

“That’s forty-five floors up,” Jackie protested. “Believe me, I’ve done them all.”

The lift dinged, and the Doctor put on a burst of speed, expecting Cybermen.

Instead, a familiar voice called out to them. “We could always take the lift.”

The Doctor skidded to a halt and turned back to the lift. “Jakey boy!” he said. “Good to see you. Everyone inside, come on,” he said, herding the group through the doors.

When they reached the executive floor, they all ran to the windows. Outside, the Genesis Ark was spinning faster and faster, with Daleks flying out of it at every vector.

Now he knew why the Genesis Ark had looked familiar. The opening matched the silhouette of a Dalek. “Time Lord science,” he said dully, his dread coming through in every syllable. “It’s bigger on the inside.”

“Did the Time Lords put those Daleks in there? What for?” Mickey asked.

To the Doctor, the answer was abundantly clear. He’d heard faint rumours of things like this, but never mentioned by name—just the concept of a dimensionally transcendent prison that could contain a legion of Daleks while only taking up a small space. “It’s a prison ship.”

“How many Daleks?” Rose asked hesitantly.

Her fear shuddered through him, but it couldn’t come close to the impotent rage he felt. He’d gone through the war, he’d pushed the button, and yet in the end, the Daleks had still won.

“Millions.”

Rose took his hand, and together they watched the scene unfolding below. Cybermen had been marching back to Torchwood, but they stopped and started firing up at the Daleks flying through the sky. As he’d suspected earlier though, they were no match for the Daleks in either weaponry or shielding, and it soon became clear who the victor would be.

_This is the real storm, isn’t it?_

He looked at Rose. _Yes._ The Doctor put his 3D glasses back on and looked at the Daleks. Thankfully, they were all covered in enough Void stuff for his plan to still work.

Behind him, he heard Pete start to make preparations to return to his own world. “I’m sorry, but you’ve had it,” he said. “This world’s going to crash and burn. There’s nothing we can do. We’re going home.”

Fear for Rose’s safety drowned out all other thoughts. As the temporal nexus slowly unraveled, the possibility of losing her forever became more likely by the second.

He turned away from her to look out the window again. _If I said there was a way for you to be safe…_

Rose snorted, then grasped his shoulder gently and pulled him around to face her. _Safe and without you?_ she guessed.

He nodded once, unable to lie, and she reminded him of how it had felt when their bond had been stretched across the Void.

The Doctor’s hands balled up into fists, and his eyes darted around the room, looking anywhere but at her. _It would only take a moment to undo it._ Rose’s answer to that was emphatic, and he sighed but let it drop.

“I’d forgotten you could argue,” Pete was saying. “It’s not just London; it’s the whole world. But there’s another world just waiting for you, Jacks. And it’s safe as long as the Doctor closes the breach. Doctor?”

The Doctor spun around and pasted a manic grin on his face to hide how grim the situation was. “Oh, I’m ready. I’ve got the equipment right here. Thank you, Torchwood.” He darted over to a computer terminal and began rebooting the program that opened the Void. “Slam it down and close off both universes.”

“But we can’t just leave,” Rose reminded him. “What about the Daleks? And the Cybermen?”

The Doctor moved to the middle of the room, careful to keep the smile firmly on his face. Rose could see through it, but no one else could. “They’re part of the problem, and that—” He pointed at Rose. “—makes them part of the solution. Oh yes!” His exclamation had the desired result of lifting some of the tension in the room. “Well? Isn’t anyone going to ask what is it with the glasses?”

Rose played along, grinning at him. “What is it with the glasses?”

“I can see, that’s what.” He pointed at the ceiling exuberantly. “Because we’ve got two separate worlds, but in between the two separate worlds, we’ve got the Void. That’s where the Daleks were hiding. And the Cybermen travelled through the Void to get here. And you lot,” he said, pointing to Pete and his crew, “one world to another, via the Void. Oh, I like that. Via the Void,” he repeated, punctuating each word with a wave of his hand.

“Look.” He took the glasses off and placed them on Rose’s face. “I’ve been through it. Do you see?”

The computer announced a three minute countdown on the systems reboot, and the Doctor started his internal countdown.

Then he focused on Rose, bobbing and weaving in front of her. She reached toward him, her hand not quite touching his face.

“What is it?” she asked.

“Void stuff.”

“Like background radiation,” she said enthusiastically.

“That’s it. Look at the others.” He turned her around so she could see the group from the parallel universe. “And the only one who hasn’t been through the Void, your mother. First time she’s looked normal in her life.”

Ignoring Jackie’s indignant protest, he ran toward the other end of the room. “But the Daleks lived inside the Void,” he said, stretching his arms out against the white wall. “They’re bristling with it. Cybermen, all of them. I just open the Void and reverse.” He spun back around to face everyone else. “The Void stuff gets sucked back inside.”

Rose bounced up and down. “Pulling them all in!”

“Pulling them all in!” Her excitement encouraged him, and for a moment, he let himself look at the timelines that didn’t end in disaster, timelines where he and Rose defeated whatever was trying to split them up and lived happily ever after.

“Sorry, what’s the Void?” asked Mickey, interrupting the Doctor’s thoughts.

“The dead space. Some people call it Hell.”

Mickey draped his own dimension hopper around his neck. “So you’re sending the Daleks and Cybermen to Hell. Man, I told you he was good,” he told Jake.

Rose looked down at her own hands through the 3D glasses, seeing the flaw in the Doctor’s plan. “But it’s like you said. We’ve all got Void stuff. Me too, because we went to that parallel world. We’re all contaminated.” She yanked the glasses off and looked at her Doctor, who was standing in front of her now. “We’ll get pulled in.”

His jaw tightened. “The suction is one-directional. The only danger is here, and they’ll all be back in Pete’s world.” His smile was a horrible caricature of the real thing. “Hey, we should call it that. Pete’s World.”

Rose sucked in a breath; that’s what he’d meant earlier when he said there was a way for her to be safe.

“And then you close it, for good?” asked Pete.

The Doctor nodded. “The breach itself is soaked in Void stuff. In the end it’ll close itself. And that’s it. Kaput.”

“But you and Rose stay here?” Mickey asked. “You’ll get pulled in.”

The Doctor ran back for the magnaclamps. “That’s why I got these. We’ll just have to hold on tight.”

Her mum pulled away from Pete and grabbed Rose’s hand. “You can’t stay here,” she pleaded. “It isn’t safe. I bet Pete has another of those yellow button things…”

She took a deep breath. “I’m not leaving him. Mum, I had a life with you for nineteen years, but then I met the Doctor, and…” She shrugged. “I’ve got a new life with him now.”

“But what if he decides to leave you behind, or you get tired of travelling? You won’t have anyone else here, Rose.”

There was only one thing Rose could think of that might convince her mother to trust the Doctor. Rose glanced over her shoulder, and he looked up from the computer terminal and nodded.

“That’s not gonna happen, Mum… because we’re engaged.”

Her mum’s eyes dropped to her hand, and then she crossed her arms. “Then why aren’t you wearing a ring?”

“We haven’t had time to get one yet, that’s all,” Rose lied. Explaining the bond would take way more time than they had.

“We need to go,” Pete said, breaking up the moment.

Jackie looked at Rose, then back at Pete. “I’m not going without her.”

Exasperation and panic were etched on every line of Pete’s face. “Oh, my God. We’re going!”

Jackie whirled on him, arms akimbo. “I’ve had twenty years without you, so button it. I’m not leaving her.”

But Rose knew this was her mum’s best chance at happiness. “You’ve got to.”

“Well, that’s tough.”

“Mum.” She took her hand and held it to her heart. “Remember what I told you before, about how I’ve changed? If I’m gonna lose you, I want to know you’re happy with Pete. You’ve got him again, an’ you can’t let a chance like that go. Losing him again would hurt you as much as losing the Doctor would hurt me. So go for me, Mum. Please?”

The Doctor’s fingers slowed on the keyboard as he watched his Rose persuade her mother to leave her behind for good. Jackie’s eyes glistened with tears and she nodded. “I’ll miss you,” she said, hugging her daughter one last time.

Jackie pulled back and pressed a kiss to Rose’s cheek, then looked at the Doctor. “Take care of her,” she ordered, and then Pete hit the button on his hopper.

Rose’s grief spiked as soon as they left, and he had to ask. “Are you sure? Once the breach collapses, that’s it. You will never be able to see her again—your own mother!”

There were tears in her eyes, but her gaze was steady when she looked back at him. “I made my choice a long time ago, and I’m never going to leave you. So what can I do to help?”

The words sounded familiar, but it was the promise in her eyes took his breath away. The Doctor vowed to himself that if they got out of this alive—not at all guaranteed—he would give her the ring tucked safely away in his coat pocket.

The computer’s announcement that the system was fully rebooted brought him back to the present, and he pointed to a terminal. “Those coordinates over there, set them all at six.”

They worked in tandem for a minute, and then Rose said, “We’ve got Cybermen on the way up.”

He ran to look over her shoulder at the security footage. “How many floors down?”

“Just one.” Another Cyberman appeared on the landing, and they watched in shock as it shot down the ones marching up.

For the first time since they’d arrived at Torchwood, the Doctor felt a glimmer of hope that things might turn out well. If even the Cybermen were on their side, what could possibly go wrong?

He entered the command to turn the levers on from Yvonne’s computer with a grin on his face. “That’s more like it,” Rose commented. “Bit of a smile. The old team.”

The Doctor picked up the magnaclamps and beamed at Rose. “Hope and Glory, Mutt and Jeff, Shiver and Shake.”

“Which one’s Shiver?”

“Oh, I’m Shake,” he insisted and dropped a magnaclamp in her arms.

They both slammed their magnaclamps against the wall, and the Doctor looked over his shoulder at Rose. “Press the red button.”

With the clamps secured to the walls, the only thing left was to open the Void. “When it starts, just hold on tight,” he told Rose. “Shouldn’t be too bad for us, but the Daleks and the Cybermen are steeped in Void stuff. Are you ready?”

They crouched down by the levers, and then Rose’s fear spiked. “So are they,” she said, nodding at the Daleks congregating outside the windows.

Time was up. “Let’s do it!” They pushed the levers into the online position and then grabbed their clamps as the suction from the Void kicked in.

Daleks soared through the air, screaming in denial, and he laughed gleefully. “The breach is open! Into the Void! Ha!”

A steady stream of Daleks and Cybermen filled the room, all flowing straight into the open Void. From across the room, he could see Rose holding onto her clamp without much difficulty, and he grinned at her.

Then the Doctor heard a snap, and the computer announced that Rose’s lever was in the offline position. The suction of the Void decreased dramatically, and above, the flow of Daleks moved much more slowly.

Rose tried to reach the lever with one hand while still holding onto her clamp with the other, but her arms weren’t quite long enough to stretch.

“I’ve got to get it upright!” she shouted at him.

The Doctor’s hearts pounded in a slow, unnatural rhythm as he watched her let go of the clamp and grab the lever. The half-power Void tugged at her, but she was able to plant her feet on the ground and push the lever up until it was online and locked.

But once the Void was fully open again, there was no way she could make it back to her clamp. She looked over at him helplessly, and he remembered when he’d heard her promise to never leave him—during her nightmare, when she’d been talking in her sleep… right before she’d said something about holding on.

Timelines shifted, and he knew this had been the endgame all along. “Rose, hold on! Hold on!” he shouted, but when she looked at him, he knew she’d felt the timelines too, and knew what was going to happen next.

The suction slowly lifted her body until she was stretched parallel to the ground. She screamed against the pressure, and the Doctor winced, knowing how much her hands and shoulders must be hurting for her to cry out like that.

_Rose, love—hold on!_

Their eyes met, and she readjusted her grip on the lever. _I won’t let go,_ she promised, just like she had in the dream. _I don’t want to leave you._

But they both knew it was an empty promise. Watching her fingers slip from the lever one at a time was worse than dying a thousand deaths. Rose smiled at him, but the Doctor could only stare in mute horror.

When she finally lost her grip entirely, time slowed, and the Doctor was vaguely aware that he must be slowing it down, trying to give Rose a way, somehow, to save herself.

“Rose!” he yelled, not wanting to see her drawn into the Void, but unable to look away from her.

The second before she reached the wall, Pete Tyler reappeared. Rose landed solidly in his arms and she looked back at the Doctor. _I love you._

The Doctor focused on the bond, opening himself up to it so she could feel how much he loved her. Her answering love and sorrow reverberated back to him, then Pete hit the button on his hopper and they disappeared.

The suction slowly faded, and then for a few seconds he could actually see the breach weave itself back together before closing entirely. His bond with Rose pulled like it had before, but this time it tore completely, and he shuddered at the pain.

The Doctor’s breath came in heaving sobs. When his feet touched the ground again, he stared at the wall for a long moment, as if he could will Rose back into existence by focusing on the point from which she had disappeared. Then he walked toward it in a daze, not stopping until he was pressed against it, his hand splayed out flat.

The place in his mind where Rose was supposed to be was empty. His mind tried to reach across the Void to find her, but the breach was well and truly closed. There was nothing there; no answer from her, no brush of her warm, pink-gold mind against his. She was just gone, and the bone deep loss nearly brought him to his knees.

The emptiness in his head after the war had nearly driven him mad. Then he’d met Rose, and even before the Game Station, she’d filled some of the hollow places left by the loss of his people. Later, their empathic connection and bond had given him the telepathic communion he’d needed.

Losing her ripped open wounds that had barely begun to scab over. He stumbled back a few steps from the wall, his vision clouded. The TARDIS sang to him, and he turned around, letting her call him home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think it's my turn to hide behind the couch. I'm hoping to post chapter 38 early, so you don't have to wait a full week to find out what happens next.


	38. Chapter 38

Being at all points in time at once, the TARDIS felt everything her Thief had felt, was feeling, and would feel. A moment ago, she had caught a ripple of his horror as he watched Rose lose her grip on the handle.

Then she felt the utter devastation and loss as he stood—would stand shortly—in front of a white wall, with their Wolf trapped on the other side.

His sorrow as he tried to say good-bye to Rose and his guilt when he realised their severed bond was hurting her, too.

_“I’m still just an image. No touch.”_

_“Can’t you come through properly?”_

_“The whole thing would fracture. Two universes would collapse.”_

_Rose’s lips trembled. “Is there any way… the bond…”_

_The Doctor clenched his fist. He’d felt Rose’s pain the moment his mind had touched hers. “There’s no way to connect through the Void,” he told her. “Rose, I’m—”_

_“Don’t. Don’t say you’re sorry.”_

She saw her Thief standing alone in the console room with tears streaming down his face, and then she followed the timeline to the next scene. He was inside her console room, about to leave the ginger bride behind.

_“Doctor?”_

_Her Thief stuck his head outside, and with exasperated fondness he said, “Oh, what is it now?”_

_“That friend of yours. What was her name?”_

_The hitch in his voice when he answered—“Her name was Rose.”_

In Elizabethan London, he was surrounded by creatures who thought they could divine a way to hurt him, as they had done with so many of their victims before.

_“Oh, but look. There’s still one word with the power that aches.”_

_He looked up at her from where he was kneeling next to his friend. “The naming won’t work on me.”_

_“But your heart grows cold. The north wind blows and carries down the distant Rose.”_

_Power radiated off her Thief as he stood up and strode toward her._ _“Oh, big mistake. Because that name keeps me fighting.”_

The emptiness as he continued to travel, trying to carry on with a life that was certainly better with two. Always reaching for her hand, always wishing she were there to explain things that he didn’t see. Remembering her every day, aching for her every day, until the TARDIS thought the pain would drive them both mad.

His lonely timeline continued on, but the TARDIS turned to her Wolf, the one who had looked into her heart. In her, she saw someone so determined to never leave the Doctor’s side that she would literally step through universes to get back to him.

_“I can’t just stay here, Pete.”_

_“But the Doctor told you it was impossible to get back.”_

The TARDIS snorted along with her Wolf.

_Rose straightened her shoulders and smiled at her almost-dad. “He didn’t reckon on me then, did he? Now, I’m not gonna change my mind, so unless you’re ordering the termination of the project, I’d like to get back to work.”_

_Pete Tyler rubbed at the furrow creasing his forehead. “Your mother wouldn’t speak to me for a week if I tried to stop you.”_

_“It will work, Pete.” Rose leaned across the desk and took his hand. “I know it will.”_

The TARDIS saw all the failed tests, until the stars started going out and suddenly the dimension cannon worked. She took hops that ended up on strange worlds, until Mickey suggested they use Rose’s TARDIS key to focus the cannon on the Doctor.

_“Because you said there’s only one world with Time Lords, yeah? So at least if you use the TARDIS key, you’ll end up in the right universe. And then we can mess with coordinates and figure out how to direct it.”_

The joy when she saw the TARDIS, and the confusion when she unlocked the doors and it didn’t look like home.

_“I’m sorry; do I know you?”_

_Rose tried to smile at the man dressed in a frock coat and cravat, but she had a feeling it looked more like a weary grimace. “Not yet,” she answered truthfully. The TARDIS key had worked, but it had brought her to the Doctor too early in his timeline._

_Her side of the bond clamoured inside her head, and the Doctor’s eyes widened. Rose remembered what her Doctor had told her on Barcelona—bonding with a Time Lord bonded you to all their regenerations, past and present._

_The Doctor took a step back._

In the present moment, the TARDIS watched Rose’s fingers slip from the lever and saw the despair on her face. A man appeared and grabbed her Wolf, and then they were gone.

Two timelines diverged then—the one she had seen, and the one she would create. The TARDIS reached across the still open Void and grabbed the part of herself she’d left behind in Rose when they were Bad Wolf, with all of Time at their fingertips, and she pulled.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

When Rose’s fingers slipped from her lever, she knew the dreams she’d had of this room were going to come true. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Pete Tyler reappear, just as she reached the wall. He caught her, and she met the Doctor’s eyes. Relief and agony mingled there, and she knew exactly what he was thinking—this was better than her being lost in the Void, but not by much.

Staring at the Doctor, she reached for the bond one last time. _I love you,_ she told him, and despite the gut-wrenching loss she could already feel from him, he managed to offer one last telepathic caress.

Then Pete hit the button in his hand, and the next thing she knew, Rose heard her mum crying behind her.

But she was too concerned with the gold motes she saw dancing around her to pay attention. Rose stared at her hands, and then a moment later, she realised she couldn’t hear her mum any more.

The bond stretched, and Rose braced herself for the pain she knew was coming. The Doctor offered to dissolve the bond, but she’d refused—so certain they would find a way to save the day and stay together. The walls were closed now; a bond couldn’t cross the Void. But the pain never came; instead of breaking, the bond twisted into something present but unusable.

Rose took in a deep breath and quickly examined her surroundings: a beach, somewhere chilly, on a grey day. There wasn’t anyone in sight, but she did see a path leading up to the road. Following it, she found a sign that named the beach, and a shiver ran down her spine.

Bad Wolf Bay.

_I take the words, I scatter them in time and space. A message to lead myself here._

It had to be a sign, but of what? Why would she and the TARDIS have decided to put her on this deserted beach in a parallel world?

Something tickled at the back of Rose’s mind, and she looked harder at the sign, trying to figure out what it was. Alongside the name of the beach there was a map, indicating she was fifty miles outside of Bergen. _But what…_ And then she realised. Bergen was in Norway. The sign was in Norwegian, but she was seeing English. _If I’m in Pete’s World, how is the TARDIS translating for me?_

As she walked back down to the beach, Rose allowed the possibility that she was still in the same universe as the Doctor to take hold of her mind. She was still here, not trapped on the other side of those white walls.

The TARDIS’s smug hum sang clearly in her mind, and she knew the ship had something to do with her rescue. Somehow, nanoseconds before the void closed, the TARDIS had taken hold of the small part of her that would always be inside Rose, and had deposited her… on a deserted beach.

The hum turned slightly apologetic, but Rose didn’t care about that. As long as she was in the same world as the Doctor, she knew he would find her. She looked up and down the long, narrow beach and sat down on a flat rock to wait.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The Doctor didn’t know how he made it back to the TARDIS; everything from the moment he’d walked away from the white wall—away from Rose—was a blur. But here he was, guided home by his ship and his time senses. He ran a hand over the door before turning the key and stepping inside.

The Doctor flinched away from the time ship’s comforting hum. Being comforted would mean he’d lost something. He hadn’t… she couldn’t… He pressed his fists against the edge of the console and leaned forward, breathing raggedly.

After a long moment, he straightened up and swallowed. He needed to be gone from here— _Gone from everywhere_ , his mind suggested—and he slowly punched in the coordinates that would send them into the Vortex.

When he couldn’t ignore his weariness any longer, he shuffled down the corridor to their room. For a moment, he stood outside with his hand on the door, unsure if he could face the memories within, but finally his exhaustion overruled his fear, and he pushed the door open.

The first hint of Rose’s scent overwhelmed him. The Doctor fell back against the door, breathing rapidly and hearts racing. He stared into the room, but all he could see were white walls and the look on Rose’s face as she fell.

He was vaguely aware that he was going into shock, and his Time Lord brain acted quickly and efficiently to keep him sane. The autonomic brain was allowed to continue functioning without interruption, but large amounts of a unique neurotransmitter flooded the neural pathways. Any incoming sensory information was blocked from moving into the processing centres of the brain.

His heart rate and breathing returned to a normal pace, and the TARDIS sang softly to him, urging him to lay down. The Doctor’s movements were stiff and mechanical as he removed every piece of his suit. Stripped down to his pants and undershirt, he crawled under the duvet and lay down on his own side of the bed, leaving Rose’s side untouched, as if she had just gotten up for a drink and would be back in a minute.

His exhaustion pulled him under quickly. Thankfully, the same defence mechanism that kept him from smelling Rose’s perfume or noticing her things mingled in with his also kept his sleep from being haunted by dreams, and he slept peacefully.

When he woke up, he was lying on his side facing the middle of the bed, with his hand stretched out in front of him, like he’d been reaching for Rose in his sleep. He’d woken up like that more than once, with his hand on her hip holding her close.

There was no defence against a Time Lord’s eidetic memory. The Doctor could recall every second he had shared with Rose in this bed with perfect, stunning clarity: the taste of her skin, the feel of her curled up against him, the soft sigh that indicated she was waking up.

The hand reaching for her curled up into a fist, and he squeezed his eyes shut. He tried to choke back the tears he could feel threatening, but his throat ached too much to swallow.

“Rose,” he murmured brokenly, a tear seeping through his closed lashes. Another joined it, and soon his body was wracked with sobs. Rose was supposed to be here; she’d promised him forever.

The Doctor curled up on his side and wrapped his arms around his chest as he continued to cry. The cathartic tears signalled his body to begin slowly filtering the neurotransmitter out of his brain, allowing him to gradually readjust to having full use of all his senses.

Eventually, sleep took him again, and this time, he dreamt of her as she had been on their last evening in Barcelona: wearing a lavender dress that highlighted the glow of her fresh tan, walking hand in hand with him through the streets and giggling about the noseless dogs.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The TARDIS shook a bit, indicating she wanted the Doctor to get up, but he rolled onto Rose’s side of the bed and pulled the duvet up around his ears. For now at least he didn’t want to leave the bed where he could still smell Rose.

 _You’re a time machine,_ he reminded her. _Whatever you want me to do, it can wait._ His ship sighed and then soothed him back to sleep.

But she came to him in his dreams, using the advantage of his unconscious state to send a message much more clearly than she could achieve when he was awake. _You can still say goodbye,_ she told him. _Find a crack, a place where the walls are still thin. I’ll help you send her a message._

When the Doctor woke up this time, he felt the first hint of calm he’d had since Jackie had mentioned the ghosts. Saying goodbye to Rose wasn’t how he’d planned to spend today, but at least it would be a chance to see her one last time.

He was surprised to realise over 12 hours had passed since… since he’d left Torchwood. The last time he’d slept that long was just after the War, when he was struggling to cope with the mental trauma of losing the Time Lords in his mind.

After showering and dressing carefully in the shirt and a tie Rose had said she particularly liked more than once, the Doctor went to the console room. “Let’s find that crack, old girl,” the Doctor murmured, calibrating the scanner to search for any places left in this universe where the walls were thin enough to let a message pass through. Once the scans were running, the TARDIS nearly pushed him away from the console with stern instructions to eat something.

Rose’s favourite mug sat in the dish drainer, mocking the Doctor with the reminder that she’d been here, just two days ago. He clenched his jaw and carefully put the mug away in the cabinet, and then he warmed up some of the leftover risotto.

When he was done eating, he went back to the console room, anxious to see if the scan had turned up any results. The light was blinking, and he hurried to see where the breach had come out.

“Norway?” he muttered when he looked at the monitor. “But how could there be any cracks left on Earth? They should have been the first ones to close.”

The TARDIS simply hummed and flashed the results at him again. “All right then, Norway,” he agreed. The TARDIS prodded at him, and he studied the name of the exact location.

Dårlig Ulv Stranden. The Doctor was fluent in dozens of languages, including Norwegian. The remaining crack was at Bad Wolf Bay.

 _Oh Rose, you really could see everything, couldn’t you?_ His heart ached at the thought that she’d held all of Time in her hands, and the only thing she’d been able to offer them was a chance to say goodbye.

Tears threatened again, and the Doctor cleared his throat and then checked the exact space time coordinates the TARDIS had found. His hand shook when he threw the lever. _One last trip for Rose._

It was the smoothest trip he’d ever taken. There was something, some emotion coming from his ship that felt like… excitement, or anticipation, but he knew that couldn’t be right. The TARDIS would miss Rose almost as much as he would.

When they landed softly on a Norwegian beach, the left door opened on its own. Through it, the Doctor could see grey skies and a narrow strip of sand running alongside the ocean.

The console room lights flashed. The TARDIS clearly wanted him to go outside, but the Doctor hesitated, even as he reached for his coat.

_Don’t I need to be inside to contact her?_

The right door swung open, and he got the message. _Go outside._ The Doctor shoved his arms into his coat and stepped out onto Bad Wolf Bay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully, I'm now forgiven for the previous chapter. This idea of the TARDIS being able to pull Rose back from Pete's World was one of the earliest pieces of the story to come to me, but it did mean she had to fall first. Coming up in Chapter 39: The actual reunion.


	39. Chapter 39

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A reunion on Bad Wolf Bay, and some answers to lingering questions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PSA: If the last thing you read was Rose being taken to Pete’s World, then make sure you read Chapter 38 before moving on to this. Since I didn’t post it on Tuesday, I want to make sure everyone knows it’s up.

Out on the beach, the ache in the Doctor’s mind seemed to ease a little. _The TARDIS must be right about there being a crack nearby,_ he thought as he started walking. His eyes scanned the horizon, not knowing exactly what he was looking for but trusting that he’d be able to spot the temporal disturbance that a crack in the walls of the worlds would leave behind.

The beach was empty, save for one person coming toward him a fast pace. _Runner,_ his mind supplied. Her hair caught in the wind, and he wondered how long it would be before he could look at a blonde and not see Rose.

It was more than her hair colour that was familiar, however. There was something in her gait, in the way she held herself… Then he noticed the runner’s blue cardigan and black trousers. His hearts clenched, and his own pace picked up, until he was running toward her flat out.

“Doctor!” Rose called out, and the sound of her voice gave him an extra burst of speed. He caught her in his arms only seconds later and lifted her up, twirling around while she laughed.

“Rose, oh Rose, you’re here,” he murmured as he set her back on her feet. He pulled her close and pressed his forehead to hers.

“I’m here, my Doctor,” she whispered, and he could feel her breath on his face.

He lifted a shaking hand and pressed his fingers to her temple without even asking. Rose mirrored him, and everything was almost perfect.

 _Forever_ , she said without being prompted, and their bond snapped back into place.

The Doctor’s knees nearly buckled, and the thought that he didn’t want the rest of their reunion to take place on a cold beach worked its way into his consciousness.

He took her hand and grinned down at her. “Run!”

Exhilaration thrummed through his body as the TARDIS came nearer, and as soon as they were inside, he pulled her into his arms. Her pink-gold presence hummed along the edges of his mind, and needing more, he reached for their bond.

_I thought you were gone._

Rose looked up at him and placed her hands on the lapels of his coat. _I told you, I’m never gonna leave you._

A sob caught in the Doctor’s throat, and he lunged forward to press his lips to hers before it could escape. This was what he needed—Rose’s body against his, Rose’s hands in his hair, Rose’s taste on his tongue. It was all proof that Rose was actually here, in his arms. He hadn’t lost her.

At that thought, his hands clenched against her back, grabbing fistfuls of her cardigan and pulling her closer. He trailed his lips along her jawline toward her ear, loving the way her eyelashes fluttered closed at the sensual caress. She sighed when he nipped at her earlobe, and he smiled and sucked on it until she moaned his name.

The Doctor pulled back a little then, brushing soft kisses against her temple and nuzzling into her neck. At the same time, he kept his touch on their bond undeniably passionate, and he knew the dichotomy was driving Rose mad.

He could feel her shifting restlessly against him as she sighed and panted in his ear. Finally, she grabbed his head and tipped it back so they were eye to eye. “Kiss me,” she demanded, her voice rough with passion.

Looking down at Rose, the impossibility of their reunion struck him again, and for a moment the Doctor just stared at her, drinking in the fact that she was here. His eyes flicked down to her heaving chest, and he frowned when he saw her blue cardigan. He unzipped it quickly, pushed it off her shoulders, and tossed it aside. “I don’t want to see that ever again,” the Doctor said quietly in answer to the question in her eyes. He tried to lock up the memory of her falling toward the open Void, but when she stroked his face with the back of her fingers, he knew she’d caught it.

He leaned into her caress, and Rose curved her lips into an inviting smile. “I think we were in the middle of something, weren’t we?” She reached for their bond, soothing away the lingering sorrow and stoking the desire into a flame.

“Oh, yes,” the Doctor growled, then put his hands on Rose’s hips and walked her backwards, not stopping until her back was pressed against a coral strut. _Right where I want you._

Rose met his ardent gaze. _What are you going to do to me, now that you have me where you want me?_ His salacious grin sent a bolt of heat through her, and then he eliminated the remaining inches between them, pressing the length of his body against hers. She moaned and arched against him when he ground into her, moving deliberately so she could feel how much he wanted her.

Eager to gain a bit of control, Rose looked at him through her lashes and ran her tongue along her bottom lip. His eyes darkened, and he swooped down to claim her lips in a searing kiss. While he was distracted by kissing her, she shoved his jacket and coat off in one motion, and then attacked his tie and the top two buttons of his shirt.

When the Doctor moved away from her lips to place open-mouthed kisses along her neck, Rose abandoned his buttons for a much better target. She sank her hands into his hair, and just as he started sucking on her clavicle, she tugged, hard.

The Doctor pulled away from her neck with a loud pop, moaning in pleasure at the sensation. His head dropped to her shoulder, and Rose loved the way he groaned and shifted against her, this time involuntarily.

_You’re a bit too pleased with yourself, love._

Before Rose could process the suggestive intent in those words, the Doctor projected a flurry of images of their bodies entwined together. Her hands clenched in his hair reflexively, and he returned to her clavicle, laving the spot with his tongue. His hands slipped beneath the hem of her camisole, slowly lifting it up.

When she squirmed in an attempt to get closer to him, the rough coral strut scraped against her bare back and took Rose out of the moment. “Bed,” she ordered hoarsely, putting her hands on his shoulders to get his attention.

His hands moved up to brush the undersides of her breasts, and Rose was almost ready to forget about comfort and just beg him to continue. Then a slow smile spread across his face and he swept her up into his arms. “Your wish is my command,” he whispered in her ear as he carried her to their room.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Much later, they were sitting up in bed, eating the light supper the Doctor had made. He was eating left-handed, since the fingers of his right hand were laced tightly with Rose’s left.

“How is this even possible?” he asked.

Rose finished her sandwich and settled back against the fluffy pillows they’d placed against the headboard. “I don’t know. I mean, I know it was the TARDIS, but…”

The Doctor took a napkin and wiped at something on Rose’s face. “Do you remember anything? How long were you in Pete’s World?”

“I was only there long enough to hear Mum’s voice, an’ then I was surrounded by these gold flecks. The next thing I knew, I was standing on the beach.”

His hand tightened around hers, and she ran her thumb over his wrist. “There’s nothing to worry about, Doctor. Whatever she did, the TARDIS kept me safe.”

He nodded curtly, and Rose suspected he’d be dragging her to the med bay at some point for tests. To distract him, she continued on with her story.

“I thought I was still in Pete’s World at first, but then I went up and looked at the sign talking about the beach, and it was translated. I realised what she must have done, and I went back down to the beach to wait.”

“How long were you there?”

Rose laughed softly. “Five and a half hours,” she told him, and he smiled faintly at the memory. “I would’ve waited as long as I needed to; you know that, right, Doctor?” He didn’t say anything, just pressed a kiss to her temple. “What about you?” she asked. “Did you come straight from Canary Wharf?”

The Doctor clenched his jaw, and the muscle under his right eye twitched. “No. I was in the Vortex for twelve hours before I… before I came here.”

Rose blinked; she hadn’t been expecting that. The TARDIS had rescued her so quickly. “That… I don’t understand.” His gaze darted around the room, looking anywhere but at her. “Is there a reason why our beautiful ship didn’t bring you straight here when you left Torchwood? I don’t understand,” she said again. “Why’d she make you wait? Why didn’t she tell you I was here?”

His eyes closed and he swallowed three times. Rose projected calm over the bond, and finally, he took a breath and looked at her. “It wasn’t the TARDIS’ fault, Rose. I should have been able to tell you were in this universe once we got into the Vortex, but I just… the shock of losing you, of feeling the bond break…”

Rose felt like he was missing a very obvious fact. “But if I came back right away, shouldn’t you have known right away?”

He smiled sadly. “You came back right away in your timeline, Rose, but as far as this universe is concerned, you were gone for a week.”

Rose sucked in a breath when she processed what he was saying. “Oh, my Doctor,” she said softly. “How much did it hurt?”

He stared straight ahead, and the hand clutching hers tightened. “Did you feel the bond tear?”

His pain rippled beneath the surface of his memories, and Rose hated that she couldn’t quite relate to what he was saying. “I didn’t,” she said quietly. “I felt it stretch, just like it did when you went to Pete’s World, but… well, I wasn’t there when the breach closed. I was already on this side, and you were here. It felt… off a little, I couldn’t reach for you, but the bond didn’t break.”

“It felt off because we experienced different realities,” the Doctor explained, speaking slowly. “You were never completely cut off from the universe I was in, so your side… in your version of reality, it didn’t break.

“It was different for me.” His voice broke, and he swallowed again before continuing. “I felt it stretch when Pete caught you and took you back, and then as the breach closed, it… it tore. I stood at the wall and tried to reach for you, but I couldn’t cross the Void. I kept searching for you, but I couldn’t find you.”

Rose caught an image of the Doctor pressed against the white wall, trying to reach for her. His devastation sliced through her, but before she could react to it, her vision blurred and she saw herself, pressed against an identical wall. Tears ran down her face, leaving streaks of mascara behind, but she didn’t care because no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t find the Doctor.

“What was that?” she breathed, staring wide eyed at the Doctor.

He rubbed at his forehead, then pushed his hand back through his hair. “That’s what would have happened, if the TARDIS hadn’t brought you home.”

Rose waited until her vision of the aborted timeline faded, then turned back to her bond mate. “What happened after you left Torchwood?” she asked.

The Doctor sighed and tugged at the burgundy duvet. “I don’t even know how I got back to the TARDIS. I took her into the Vortex, and then I just came in here and lay down. The TARDIS jarred me awake after twelve hours, told me there was a chance I could say goodbye to you.” He placed a finger over her mouth before she could ask her next question. “I expect she knew I wouldn’t believe her if she told me you were still here.”

Rose picked up the food tray and set it down on the bedside table so she could scoot closer to the Doctor. Snuggled up beside him, she closed her eyes and focused on their bond.

_I’m sorry._

For the first time she could remember, the Doctor remained stiff and wooden instead of returning her embrace. Even without the bond, Rose could feel the tension radiating off his body. She wondered what words would break this wall down.

 _I’m here,_ she said finally.

The Doctor held his breath for a full thirty seconds, then he sobbed and pulled her into his lap. _But you weren’t. You’re supposed to be there, and you weren’t._

His emotions were all over the place, and any restraint he might have had was gone. Rose was hit by the full force of his pain, and realised the Doctor’s assumption about why the TARDIS hadn’t just told him she was here was correct. He wouldn’t have believed her; he would have railed against the ship instead of coming to Norway.

 _I’m here now,_ she said. _We beat the storm._

 _We did._ He rained kisses on every part of her face, then followed her jawline up to her neck. Rose sighed and tilted her head back, letting him reach whatever part of her he wanted.

The Doctor felt her total acceptance and shifted them so they were lying on the bed, facing each other. He lifted his hand to her temple; he’d needed the reassurance of a physical union before, but now he needed to feel her in his mind. Fleetingly, he thought about the marriage bond and looked forward to being able to slip in and out of each other’s minds, hands free.

Rose’s warm pink-gold presence glowed brighter in his mind when the connection was formed. She brushed against the edges of their bond that were still raw, and he sank deeper into her when he felt her healing touch.

She pulled him into her mind then, and he gaped a little when he realised she was projecting them into a memory from Barcelona—specifically, a waterfall they had hiked to.

He looked and realised she’d gotten every detail exactly right—the lush green palm fronds, the sound of the water rushing over the cliff face and splashing into the pool below, even the fragrant scent of the pink and purple tropical flowers.

 _How’d you do that?_ he asked.

Rose smirked up at him, and he knew what she was going to say before she spoke. _Inside your mind, you can be anywhere you want to be._

_I know that, thank you. But…_

_I just thought we needed to be someplace peaceful._

The Doctor shook his head. One day, he would learn to stop underestimating Rose Tyler—although considering she seemed to be revealing new talents at a faster rate than he could learn, that day might be in the far distant future.

_Oi! I can hear that, you know._

He laughed and took her hand, tugging her down the path toward the base of the waterfall. Once there, he took off his shoes and socks and rolled up his trousers so he could dangle his feet in the bright turquoise water.

_You too, Rose. Come on._

She smiled shook her head, but kicked her shoes off and sat down without argument. The Doctor wrapped an arm around Rose, and sitting here with her, he could feel the lingering pain of their separation fading.

When she splashed her feet in the water, sending ripples through the pool, he realised she was lost in her own thoughts. _What’s on your mind?_

_Other than you?_

_I’m in your mind, Rose—not on it._

She nodded absently, and he waited. _How come we’ve got clothes on? We’re lying naked in bed._

_You tell me. You’re the one who brought us here._

_Right._ Rose looked down at her denim capris and red sleeveless top. _Well, we’re wearing what we wore that day, so I must have pulled it from my memory._

They were quiet for a few minutes, and then she asked, _How does the bond actually work?_

_Ah. I never really explained that, did I?_

_No, not really. And I’d kinda like to understand._

_Quite right,_ the Doctor said absently as he sought for a simple analogy. He’d never tried to explain the intricacies of Gallifreyan telepathy to anyone before.

 _Do you know what a backdoor is, Rose? In software, not in a building,_ he clarified.

Rose laid down on her back, and the Doctor copied her, taking her hand in his and staring up at the blue sky through the green, leafy canopy.

_Sorta. Mickey mentioned it a few times. S’like… a way for the programmer to get in, no matter what?_

_Basically. Viruses can leave them behind too. Our bond now works in much the same way. We don’t need to be touching to communicate telepathically, and it gets around all traditional telepathic barriers._

The Doctor felt a pulse of alarm from Rose and looked over at her. _Does that mean other telepaths could like, eavesdrop on us? Spy on us?_

 _The opposite, actually,_ he told her, and the wrinkle in her forehead smoothed out. _It means it would be impossible for our conversation to be overheard, unless another telepath literally broke one or both of our minds. And it would be impossible for that to happen without us being aware of it._

_So it’s like a secure line._

Rose was quiet for a moment, but the Doctor could tell there was more she wanted to ask. He waited, letting the soft sounds of flowing water and cawing birds fill the silence.

_And… what about the marriage bond? How does it work? I just… Earlier, you were thinking about how this will be easier, or different, once we fulfil the bond._

The Doctor wondered if Rose realised the words she’d chosen: it _will_ _be_ easier, instead of _would be._ Anticipation tightened in his gut like it always did when Rose spoke of their future with that kind of certainty.

_Well… obviously that’s different. Creating a full marriage bond means there’s a piece of my mind in yours, and vice versa. That’s why distance isn’t an issue—I will always be with you._

_And that’s why… why it can’t be broken,_ Rose guessed. _Because it’d be like tearing part of my mind out._

_Exactly._

The Doctor waited, but when it seemed like Rose had asked all her questions, he decided he was done with serious conversation for now. He sat up and started unbuttoning his shirt, enjoying her surprise.

_What are you doing?_

He dropped the shirt onto the rock beside him, then stood up to undo the zip on his trousers. _Do you remember what I wanted to do the last time we were here?_

She blushed and rolled her eyes. _They’d have arrested us for desecrating the goddess' sacred pool._

The Doctor dropped his trousers and pants and jumped into the water. _Yes, well, if this is all in our minds, then there’s no one to tell us we can’t go swimming under the waterfall._

Rose’s smiling face disappeared into darkness, and for a moment he panicked, the memory of losing her still fresh in his mind. Then he realised he was still in her mind, and he relaxed.

 _Mood lighting?_ he teased.

 _If I’m going skinny dipping with my bond mate, I’m doing it in the moonlight,_ Rose said.

The Doctor’s keen eyesight quickly adjusted to the dim light, and his breath caught as he watched her undress. The moon shone directly on her, casting a silver glow on her blonde hair and fair skin.

 _That… that is a brilliant idea,_ he thought shakily.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

When the Doctor finally opened his eyes again, he was lying on his back with Rose sprawled across his chest. He stroked her hair absently, trying to process the changes of the last thirty hours.

A thought occurred to him, and he started to chuckle. Rose lifted her head up to look at him. “What’s so funny?”

“You do realise you probably passed on our one chance at console room sex?” he said, tickling her ribs. “The TARDIS would have allowed it today, given the circumstances. But after this…”

Rose laid her head back down, and he could feel her smile. “Oh, I don’t know. I think I might be able to persuade her.”

 


	40. Chapter 40

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, here we are—the last chapter. There's an epilogue coming on Friday or Saturday that wraps up a few loose ends and sets the stage for the sequel.

A light hand running up and down her arm pulled Rose from her sleep. She blinked a few times, then smiled when she saw the Doctor propped up on one elbow, facing her. Now that she was awake, the sensation of his fingers drawing patterns on her arm sent shivers through her body.

“Good morning.” Rose traced a finger over his left eyebrow, down his sideburn, then moved her hand to the back of his neck and pulled him down for a kiss. His free hand moved up to tangle in her hair as they kissed languorously.

“Morning, love,” he whispered when he finally broke the kiss. “Ready for breakfast?”

Rose started to nod, then wrinkled her nose. “After I take a shower,” she said decisively. “It’s been… well, I haven’t showered since before we went to Razda. A lot’s happened since then—including spending five and a half hours camped out on a beach.”

“Well that’s easy enough. You shower, and I’ll cook breakfast.” He raised an eyebrow. “Better if I cook anyway; I’ve seen what you can do in a kitchen.”

“Oi!”

The Doctor laughed and rolled out of bed. Instead of his suit, he put pyjamas on, and Rose lay back in bed, admiring the way the bottoms hung low on his hips. He glanced at her over his shoulder, his eyes sparkling. “Staring at me won’t get you any cleaner, Rose Tyler. Breakfast will be ready in thirty minutes. If you’re not in the galley, I’ll come get you.”

“That doesn’t give me a lot of incentive to hurry, does it?” Rose countered.

He laughed again, and then left the room.

Rose sighed and pushed herself out of bed. She really did want a shower; the combination of sweat, sand, and the dust of battle hadn’t bothered her last night when they’d been caught up in the joy of their reunion, but today, she felt sticky and gross.

She ignored her reflection in the mirror as she stepped into the shower, but the moment the hot water hit her skin, she forgot all about how wrung out she must have looked. She sighed with pleasure as water rinsed the grime off her body and the heat relaxed muscles that were still clenched tight.

The Doctor’s deadline ticked down in her head, and when five minutes had passed, Rose began to wash, starting with her hair. His happiness was a living thing in her mind, and she grinned when she remembered his teasing.

Her smile faltered when she remembered his desperation the day before. To say he hadn’t taken her loss well was an understatement; reading between the lines, it sounded like the pain of the broken bond had left him nearly catatonic. Rose bit her lip, then pushed the thought aside. That was all sorted. The TARDIS had brought her home, and unless another breach to a parallel world opened up, they weren’t going to be split up like that again.

The TARDIS dematerialised while Rose was getting dressed, and she realised they’d stayed on Bad Wolf Bay all night. She laughed, wondering what the earlier morning runners had made of the blue box sitting on the beach.

Rose reached the galley with two minutes left to spare in the Doctor’s allotted half hour. “Ah, good. You’re here. Not that I wouldn’t have enjoyed coming to get you, but the banana waffles would have burned.”

“And that would have been a waste of bananas,” she said seriously.

“Exactly!”

She bit back a giggle and pulled cups out of the cabinet.

“Wait a minute, were you teasing me for my very logical love of bananas?”

“Would I do that?” she asked innocently. “After all, bananas are good.”

“I’m not sure you appreciate bananas enough to deserve the magnificence that is my banana waffles.” He rocked back on his heels. “Then again, I have already made them. Maybe I just need to take you to Villengard when we’re done eating so you can grasp the history of this fantastic fruit.” He opened the iron and added the last waffle to the plate.

Rose rolled her eyes and pulled the tea out of the cupboard. “You can take me wherever you want, as long as you promise to feed me first.”

The Doctor had a retort ready, but a wave of deep sadness came from Rose, and he turned around quickly to see her clutching the tea canister, nearly in tears.

He wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close. “Miss your mother?” he asked softly. She nodded, and he pressed a kiss to her temple.

That tender gesture undid the control Rose had held herself under since they’d arrived in Canary Wharf. Turning her face into his chest, her body was wracked with sobs. The Doctor couldn’t do anything but hold onto her tight and project love and comfort to her over their bond.

His natural tendency to blame himself for everything reared up, and he couldn’t help but feel guilty. That guilt triggered the all too familiar feeling that he didn’t deserve Rose, that she would have been happier if she’d never met him.

“Don’t,” she mumbled into his chest. “I told you, Doctor. I made my choice. I’m never gonna regret choosing you. That doesn’t mean I won’t be sad that I had to choose, an’ that I’ll never see my mum again.”

The message was clear: this isn’t about you. With sudden clarity, the Doctor realised how often his guilt was… well, self-centred. _Something to think about later,_ he told himself.

He pulled back and wiped the tears from Rose’s eyes. “Would you…” He stopped and started over at the beginning. “The TARDIS convinced me to go to Norway by telling me we were looking for one last crack between the worlds so I could say goodbye. Would you like that?”

Rose bit her lip. “Is that even possible?”

“In theory, yes. Truth is, we’ll never know until we try.”

“Then yeah. Let’s try.”

“I’ll have her start looking then.” He hugged Rose once more, then spun back around to the platter of waffles.

“Now, I think the TARDIS has kindly been keeping these waffles warm for us, but we ought to sit down and eat anyway. I’m starving.”

“I felt you move the TARDIS while I was getting dressed,” Rose said as she spread Nutella over her waffles. “Where are we?”

The Doctor shifted his gaze away from her. “It’s a surprise.”

“Is it somewhere we’ve been before?”

“In a way.”

Rose considered that answer while she took a few bites of her breakfast. With most people, it wouldn’t make any sense at all, but she thought maybe she knew what he meant.

“Does that mean we’ve been there, but not in the time we’re going today? Or that we’ve visited this exact day before, but not in this place?”

His eyes widened slightly, then he leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. “The latter… in a way,” he answered.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Rose cleared the table when they were done with breakfast. “I’ll clean up while you get dressed,” she told the Doctor. “The sooner you’re ready, the sooner I can see what you’ve got planned.”

The Doctor dropped a quick kiss on her lips, then left the kitchen. He tried to tamp down his nervousness so Rose wouldn’t pick up on it, but he couldn’t get rid of the rolling sensation in his stomach. Fortunately, her impatience buzzed through him, and he could use it to hide his own agitation.

She was sitting on the jump seat when he walked into the console room, but she jumped up as soon as she saw him. “So, where are we?”

He laughed and walked to the doors, waiting for her to join him before he opened them. While she was transfixed by the sight of her home planet below them, he covertly reached into his coat pocket and retrieved the small, wooden box containing her ring.

“You haven’t shown me this view of the Earth since Platform One,” she said quietly.

_Our first date,_ they both thought.

“Sit with me,” the Doctor requested, and they sat together, their legs dangling into space.

“Right now, we’re in a geosynchronous orbit. And that—” he pointed to the cloud-obscured planet—“is London. Specifically, London on the fourth of March, 2005. In about two hours, a weary old Time Lord will take the hand of an extraordinary shopgirl who will remind him that there is still some good left in the universe.”

Rose looked up at him. “And a London shopgirl who’s convinced she’s never gonna do anything else will be rescued by an alien who shows her that the universe is so much bigger than she’d imagined.”

The Doctor brushed her hair back over her ear. “I got you something on Razda. When… when you fell, I thought I’d never be able to give it to you.”

There was a spark of recognition in her eyes when he handed her the box. “I saw that yesterday, when I was looking for the psychic paper,” Rose said.

“And you didn’t look inside?”

“I was a little busy at the time,” she reminded him.

The Doctor tugged on his ear. “Right. Of course.”

He waited for her to open it, but instead she turned it over in her hands a few times, apparently more interested in the box than in what might be inside.

“Are you going to look inside now?” he finally asked.

Rose looked at him through her eyelashes. “Oh, did you want me to?”

The Doctor rolled his eyes and plucked the box from her hands. He had the box open and the ring out before Rose could fully form her protest. Her mouth fell open, and she took the ring from him.

“You’ve already promised yourself to me according to Gallifreyan customs. I want to make the same promise to you in the way you grew up expecting.” Rose’s gaze flitted up to meet his. “Marry me?”

She handed him the ring. For a hearts-stopping moment, he thought she was giving it back, then he realised she was holding out her left hand and looking at him expectantly.

The Doctor slid the ring onto her finger, grinning when he realised it fit her perfectly.

Rose held up her hand and examined the ring in the dim light of the console room. “TARDIS blue?”

“Yep.”

“It’s beautiful, Doctor. Thank you.”

“If you want… Later, when we complete the bond, we can get matching wedding bands.”

“Was that something Gallifreyans did?”

“No, but it’s an Earth custom I like. It’s a symbol that we belong… not to each other, but together.”

Rose leaned her head against his shoulder, and the Doctor wrapped an arm around her, holding her close. He could feel her mind working, trying to figure something out, but he couldn’t tell what she was thinking.

“Do you think I saw this, when I was Bad Wolf?” she asked finally. “Did I make this happen?”

The Doctor considered. “You were Time, Rose. It wasn’t just something you were aware of, or that you marked your life with. For that half hour, Time was entwined with the essence of who you are. So yes, I think you saw this. And I think the place you held in Time probably will make key moments in your life... resonate more than they would for an ordinary person.”

He looked down at her and brushed his thumb along her cheek. “But I don’t think Bad Wolf made this happen. I think we did.”

Rose chewed on the inside of her mouth, then the slight tension around her eyes eased and she smiled. “You’re right, my Doctor,” she said. “And it all began right down there.”

Sitting in the Earthlight with his bond mate, the Doctor reached out tentatively for their timelines. The beauty of what he saw took his breath away, and he pressed his fingers to Rose’s temple so she could see it too. Two timelines entwined, stretching into the future as far as they could see.


	41. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who's reviewed this story, left kudos, or bookmarked it. You've made Tuesday my favourite day of the week for over eight months.

A slim blond man sat silently, watching the footage of the Battle of Canary Wharf on his computer screen. Rose Tyler had fallen, just like he had known she would. Then why did he still feel the presence of two Time Lords in his mind?

He watched the security tape from Canary Wharf over and over, trying to find the moment when she was brought back. Finally, going frame by frame he saw it—trails of gold light sneaking through the Void just as it sealed shut.

He clenched one hand into a fist and jabbed at the button on his intercom. “Yes, Mr. Saxon?” his secretary said.

“Something urgent has come up that I need to deal with. Cancel all my meetings for the day.” 

“But Mr. Saxon—”

“Cancel them,” he said in a voice that brooked no argument.

“Yes sir.” 

Five minutes later, the Master strode past her desk without giving her a second glance. And why would he? She was just another human, under his thumb and beneath his attention. 

Downstairs, his driver was waiting. “Take me home,” he ordered curtly.

The drive was painfully slow, with traffic on the M25 the same mess it usually was. Why did these humans ever think automobile traffic was a good way to travel from one location to another? 

But finally he was at home. He tossed his briefcase down on the table in the foyer and strode for the basement, pulling out the key he always kept on him as he went. Through a series of locked doors, he finally came to his quarry.

The Doctor’s TARDIS glowed in the middle of the room. The Master leaned against the door for a moment, and then slowly circled around the blue box. 

“You did it, didn’t you?” he said softly. “I tried to trap the Doctor’s bond mate in a parallel universe, but you reached through the Void and brought her back.” 

The Master couldn’t truly communicate with this TARDIS, since it wasn’t his, but he was a strong enough telepath to sense the smug note in her hum. 

He tsked. “I think you will come to regret interfering with my plans,” he said. “You were always going to be turned into a paradox machine, but now… Oh, now I’m going to make sure you feel every piece we strip from you, every screw that is wrenched out of place.” 

The ship flickered her lights at him, and the Master knew exactly what she was saying. “You think your Time Lords will rescue you?” He sneered. “I have a trap laid for them that they will not be able to escape. True, I would rather have taken the Doctor alone—a miserable, mourning Doctor would be so much more fun to play with—but the trap will hold two just as easily as it would one.”

He walked back to the door, turning around to look at the ship one more time before leaving the room. “If you are as fond of this human-Time Lord hybrid as you seem to be, you should have left her in the parallel universe. Bringing her back has only put her within my grasp.” 

The Master’s lips twisted in a satisfied smile when the ship’s hum took on a concerned note. The sound grew louder as he walked away, but he left the room and locked the door without looking back. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's a wrap. Now you know who's been playing with timelines to split up Rose and the Doctor, and you can spend the next year wondering what the Master will do to Rose.
> 
> I should be ready to start posting the sequel in December. Between now and then, I've got a few short outtakes to share and an alternate ending. I knew I wanted this to be a fix-it story, but when I was editing, I suddenly wondered if, because of the bond, the Doctor would know Rose was hopping back and forth during series 4. Look for But Being Spent in September.


End file.
